Blog and work conflicts

I have a couple of friends who have blogs that are not anonymous. One friend is a high school English teacher in his early 30's. He writes stuff that shocks me - he jokes about the size of his male anatomy, writes other very personal info including hinting at illegal drug use, and yet he knows that some of his students read his blog because they found him on MySpace (and his profile is not private). Another friend is a cop of the same age, and writes a lot of hateful, racist garbage that I don't even bother to look at anymore. The last time I read it, he had written about how he harrassed a young black couple about being pregnant and still in high school without jobs. Another time, he basically made a threat to arrest a guy who was lurking on his blog who didn't agree with him politically.

I am really amazed that these two have not been in trouble yet for the things they put on their blogs. I think they are both being really stupid, but since they both have pretty good job security I guess they don't think it matters.

Anyone else seen a similar situation firsthand? I just had to get this off my chest because I still can't believe the stupidity.

i have heard about bloggers who have lost their jobs for what they type, i know one man was going to be taken to court if he didnt delete a post, it didnt contain much information, but.. the powers that be.

never put anything on your blog that you wouldnt want people who knows you wouldnt want to know.

i have a blog, and i put everything, my thoughts, i even have a few people i dislike and i put it there.. http://mercurior.blogspot.com/

i have had a few negative comments by people who dislike me.

but all in all mines pretty tame.. to speak about stuff like racism, and other material, is foolish and could be cause for loss of job..

myspace is watched closely, by police a few myspace kids planned to kill people in their school and they were arrests, they arrested a pedophile for alledgedly grooming a child..

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Blogs can be one reason why a person does not get hired. It is not hard to find a blogger when the person is not anonymous and uses his/her own photo. A few months ago, I read in the USA Today of a divorced daddio who was checking on his teen daughter's My Space account to make sure pedophiles were not lurking around or she was not posting anything inappropriate. Many parents also check their children's online activity.

The dumb daddio really looked like an @ss when he admitted in the article how HE got into looking for dates on My Space once he started looking around and posted his own account. What a lovely example for his daughter! I am sure Daddio is not seeking out women in his own age group as most of the members are quite young. I used to have an account until the site creeped me out. There was a man in his 40's with his "friends" all being very young girls. Get this...the man said he did not want "slutty" women to ask to be on the "friends lists". As if he was Mr. Virginity...

"FUCK WORK"

Never ceases to amaze me how dumb some people can be. They post their name and where they work in their blogs, they tell people at work about their blogs, they visit their blogs while at work...damn fools.

I have a public blog in which I express some interesting opinions, but it's anonymous. My name is not used (there are, after all, many people named Kat in the world), nor my location (short of my state), nor my picture, nor anything identifying. Someone working really hard who knew me and my friends might be able to find me through surfing around friends' pages of people I know, but like I said, they'd have to have access to my friends' blogs, and then find my posts, and recognize me. I'm sure a super-dedicated stalker could pull up something somewhere, but most employers aren't like that--a Google of my name will find you a couple press releases from my alma mater in which I'm mentioned, and then a bunch of other people with my name. That's it.

Even though in some states it is probably illegal to fire someone for a blog done off of work time, this is still a touchy subject. I heard that many employers DO an online search on potential employees to see if they are blogging and are offensive. I know I have written letters to the editors of papers and magazines that got onto the 'Net. I wrote from abortion rights to being childfree...which had my name in full. A couple of times, I thought I was a shoo-in for a job but never got the callback. Who knows...perhaps it was the past letters that did me in??? I do not even write letters anymore since most magazines and newspapers are Internet accessible. It is really not worth it since a person's livelihood can be affected. Freedom speech is not free. There are consequences to every action.

Unfortunately, that's true. Frankly, I don't think an employer should be able to fire you for what you do when you're not at work (unless it's illegal or REALLY reprehensible, or unless your blog has company secrets on it or something)...I think that's a very slippery slope. It can go from them being able to fire you becuase they don't like what you wrote on your blog, to maybe they can fire you because they don't like the organizations or activities you're involved with outside of work, to maybe they can fire you because they find out you're into bondage or like to wear short-shorts and tube tops on weekends or swear outside of work.

The way I see it is, if they're not paying me and I'm not on their property and it's not affecting my work, it's MY time and they can't tell me what to do with it.

i blog, i write, if you were determined you could find out where i lived. i write about everything, my freedom to speak out, is a right, to have a employer saying you cant think like this, cant say this, stops my freedom of speech.

and has been seen, theres been cases of women being fired, and men, then they take the companies to court and, its unfair dismissal.

do the employers own the rights of your free time, can they say you cant do this, if it is against their "policy" in work time yes, out of work time, definatly 100% NO. any company that fires someone for in their own personal time, outside of work, for their actions, (unless it breaks the law), is a bad company.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

K12144 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Unfortunately, that's true. Frankly, I don't
> think an employer should be able to fire you for
> what you do when you're not at work (unless it's
> illegal or REALLY reprehensible, or unless your
> blog has company secrets on it or something)...I
> think that's a very slippery slope. It can go
> from them being able to fire you becuase they
> don't like what you wrote on your blog, to maybe
> they can fire you because they don't like the
> organizations or activities you're involved with
> outside of work, to maybe they can fire you
> because they find out you're into bondage or like
> to wear short-shorts and tube tops on weekends or
> swear outside of work.
>
> The way I see it is, if they're not paying me and
> I'm not on their property and it's not affecting
> my work, it's MY time and they can't tell me what
> to do with it.


Kat, we are really nothing more than company hos for most employers. They do believe they own our asses and should have a claim on our thoughts & actions outside of work. It is getting worse with how employees can be let go for virtually anything as long as federal issues such as discrimination are not mentioned. Of course, a boss will find a way to get around that touchy issue but will use something benign to get rid of someone s/he just does not like...such as being one minute late to work.

Fired, hell, you can be denied access to the glory and wonder of the United States if you have ever said in public that you disagree with it's policies, or if you have written recently about your drug experiences in the 60's.

welcome to the country of free speech, which isnt free anymore.

and its becoming less able here if europe gets its way.

you cant say, you cant speak, welcome to the world of uber national restrictive regimes,

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

mercurior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> welcome to the country of free speech, which isnt
> free anymore.
>
> and its becoming less able here if europe gets its
> way.
>
> you cant say, you cant speak, welcome to the world
> of uber national restrictive regimes,

It is getting worse. Last night on FOX, there was a story of a college grad in her mid-20's had her degree rescinded after the lady posted a pic on www.myspace.com wearing a pirate outfit at a costume party and holding an alcoholic beverage in her hand. The woman was NOT underage. Nor was she consorting with minors. Yet the college felt this woman did not "deserve" her degree as she wanted to teach. Since when is a woman supposed to live like a nun because she wants to teach school. This is not the 1800's or early 1900's where a schoolteacher was to remain unmarried -- meaning un-fucked -- or not drink liquor. The grad is suing and I hope she does win. This is so fucked up how a fucking photo from a party can get a university degree taken away.

"It is getting worse. Last night on FOX, there was a story of a college grad in her mid-20's had her degree rescinded after the lady posted a pic on www.myspace.com wearing a pirate outfit at a costume party and holding an alcoholic beverage in her hand."
I would imagine that she graduated from some sort of religious institution...I guess that's what happens when you go to a school whose belief system is based on fictional books and blind faith.

Feh, I don't think she graduated from a religious university. At least, it was not mentioned. I would believe this would be a big part of the story if the woman had gone to a Christian school. Even small businesses that claim to be into "diversity" can be real shits at time. Oh...don't get me started. Let me go back to drinking my coffee...

I am just thinking that a public institution wouldn't be able to take away someone's degree simply because someone has pict

Hrm. Now, I could see where an employer might not want to hire someone based on photos online--I mean, posting nude pics of yourself with personally identifying info is just asking for it--but it doesn't sound like that pic was that big of a deal, and denying her her DEGREE?? For which she paid a lot of money, probably went into a lot of debt, and worked her ass off? I have my doubts about whether they can legally do that, if she has fulfilled all of the school's requirements for graduation (which she must've if they gave it to her in the first place). Unless it's a private school, in which case not all laws apply.

Kat, we are really nothing more than company hos for most employers. They do believe they own our asses and should have a claim on our thoughts & actions outside of work.

Oh, don't I know. I am constantly shocked by some of the stuff that my bf tells me about policies at his work, and it doesn't even faze HIM! They have to provide a pager or cell number as an "emergency" number and if they get a call and don't return it within 15 minutes, they're fired. Period. And the dude's not a doctor or cop or anything--he just sells mortgages! What the hell in a loan can't wait half an hour, or until the next day?? And I'll be damned if we're in the middle of getting married or I'm in the hospital on my deathbed or we're getting it on, if he's going to get up and answer some "emergency" that is probably just some wanker wanting to verify what rate s/he got. I would smash that phone to bits, after I used it to call his boss and tell him exactly what I think of him.

He eats lunch at his desk and told me he thinks if he took a half hour and went out to get lunch, he'd probably get fired.

They're required to work two Saturdays a month I believe, which is well within the company's right I guess, but they don't usually tell them until a few days beforehand that they have to work that weekend! Luckily it's never clashed with any of our plans together or I'd seriously flip my lid.

He told me last night that his boss won't approve any time off requests unless HE thinks it's something important. He couldn't believe my boss just signed a time off request for me without even asking why I wanted the day off.

That's seriously the place for obsessive workaholics to work--none of them seem to notice a problem in any of these situations!