Be Ye Not So Stupid

10 Feb 05 by Byron
To get, “dooced,” is to lose your job for something you posted in your blog. It comes from Dooce.com, the website where the first reported blogger was fired for her reports on drug-addicted executives and dotcom debauchery. The ol’ El Dooce’ came up again this week when a Google blogger got fired. It was also a topic during the sessions at BBS 05 and was discussed as “fear of blogs,” “freedom of speech,” and “PR” issues. I’ve seen countless emails on it and get asked a lot about employee blogs. My answer for bloggers is that your freedom of speech ends with your employer. For employers, your employees need to understand that they can and will be fired for their blog. Regarding getting fired for her website, Dooce.com notes, “Be Ye Not So Stupid.” Good advice.

Washington is an At Will state, meaning your contract can be terminated at any time for any reason. An employer could fire me because they didn’t like the tune I was humming, the coffee I brought in for the staff, or the way I like to say, “Byronicus Maximus!,” when I enter a room. The topics on my blog end at the work I do for companies and I’ll keep it that way. I will not risk pissing off the people that pay me and I’m not surpised when bloggers do get dooced.


dooced
Getting fired because of something that you wrote in your weblog.

"Blogger Heather B. Armstrong coined the phrase in 2002, after she was fired from her Web design job for writing about work and colleagues on her blog, Dooce.com" (Source: Yahoo.com)
Last October, Delta Air Lines flight attendant Ellen Simonetti was fired, she said, for what her supervisor called a misuse of uniform. Simonetti had posted on her personal blog, Queen of Sky (now called Diary of a Fired Flight Attendant), pictures of herself, in her uniform, on an empty plane. Her blog also contained thinly veiled work stories.

(Yahoo! News)
Source: Mary Bo Barry, Feb 11, 2005


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