Employers Striking Fear in the Hearts of Bloggers

As blogging becomes more prominent in online culture, it is having an incredible impact on society in general. Everyone can be a journalist and report on events as they happen without waiting for the “media” to arrive. Average citizens can help expose corruption in big business, the media, and in our country’s political structure. All of these are great things. This new power is unfortunately coming back to haunt some bloggers.

Over the past few years, several bloggers have been fired from companies both big and small. The claims range from divulging corporate secrets on the web to taking inappropriate pictures in company issued uniforms. Several of the bloggers who were dismissed have taken their former employers to court to battle it out. I think that some of them have a chance of winning, especially if their company has no written policy on blogging or no written policy that could be applied to blogging. The vast majority, however, don’t have any chance of winning at all as this current political administration has allowed big business to run amok and do whatever it wants. There are virtually no protections for the employee and companies can fire you at will without giving you a reason.

All of this has prompted me to start researching these situations to avoid them moving forward with my blog. I am also trying to find more information on how blogs have negatively impacted an individual’s candidacy for employment. Obviously the easiest way to protect yourself would be to avoid mentioning your employer, your job duties, or your coworkers. If you are a whistle-blower, you should always inform the proper agencies and authority at your workplace before attempting to blog about it. If you find it
necessary to get specific about your job or your employer it may be necessary to do everything anonymously to protect your privacy. The EFF has posted an article about blogging safely about your workplace along with a legal guide for bloggers which I am in the process of thoroughly reading.

So far I have tried my best to separate the workplace from my blog. I am curious about how potential employers have viewed my blog and whether or not it has kept me from getting hired. I know that in the case of web development positions or technical and creative writing positions it has almost always worked in my favor. I have heard from other bloggers that they have been passed over for specific positions because of their blog or even because of specific posts on their blog. I hope that I have not been the victim of that kind of prejudice.

Have any of you been rejected from a position due to the content of your blog? If so I’d love to hear about your experience.