{"id":2157,"date":"2002-03-01T15:29:50","date_gmt":"2002-03-01T20:29:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/?p=2157"},"modified":"2002-03-01T15:29:50","modified_gmt":"2002-03-01T20:29:50","slug":"the_price_of_fr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2002\/03\/01\/the_price_of_fr.html","title":{"rendered":"The Price of Freedom"},"content":{"rendered":"

The author of Dooce.com is out of a job<\/a> because she made “negative<\/a>” comments about her workplace on her blog — without naming either the workplace or the individuals therein.<\/p>\n

That takes things a tick further along than my own concerns over things I say about my own job here — which tend to be fairly minimal. My tack on it has been as a manager not wanting to get in trouble talking out of church about my staff (or other HR-related items) … those tend to be the things I would be most likely to blog about (from a therapeutic perspective), and it’s just not a Good Thing to be doing so.<\/p>\n

As to Heather’s experience here … I dunno. I think it’s a crying shame, I think the company is a bunch of doofuses to do it … but I don’t know that it’s illegal. Unethical? That’s another question. Obviously employees have a personal life outside of their work, but in practice what one does there sometimes has an effect on what one does at work. If I were a project manager on work we were doing for client X, and then, on the weekends, was at the forefront of a protest there with a big sign that said, “Client X Sucks!”, would my company have cause to be irked, and so take action about it?<\/p>\n

The fact is, the Internet is not private (that’s sort of the point). Anyone can read what I write here. If I write something like, “Well, not to name any names, but my supervisor thinks the CIO is a jerk,” anyone can read it — and can, if they dig deeply enough here, discover where I work, and probably learn who my supervisor is. Or, in the reverse, if someone from my company gets a hint that I have a blog (I don’t advertise it, but neither do I keep it a secret), they are now being invited to see those comments.<\/p>\n

(FWIW, as far as I know, my supervisor thinks the CIO is a good boss, or else he wouldn’t work for him. Just thought I’d mention it.)<\/p>\n

Discretion is important. Don’t write it in a blog if you don’t want someone to be e-mailing it to everyone they know at your job, in your family, among your friends, or stuck on the bulletin board at your workplace, your job, or your local hang-out. It’s like talking about your job when standing in line at the store, or in a bar or restaurant. Someone can<\/i> hear. It’s just not smart.<\/p>\n

Does that mean I’ll never say anything about my job here? No, of course not. But it does mean I’ll realize that what I posted today could be public knowledge tomorrow. If it’s that important, then I shouldn’t let that stand in my way, but if it’s just venting for the sake of nothing better to say, is it worthwhile?<\/p>\n

Heather notes, in addressing the above, that “I refuse to live in fear. I refuse to be censored. I’ve lived my life far too long in fear of disrupting expectations. I made a conscious decision when I conceived dooce.com that I would never bow to the intimidation of others, including employers ….” And that’s cool, and that’s everyone’s right. Doesn’t mean the employers have to like it either. They want to be jerks about it, that’s their prerogative, far as I can tell. Freedom of expression doesn’t mean freedom from repercussions. <\/p>\n

For what it’s worth, though, Heather, I agree fully that the little creep who reported this in a mass anonymous e-mailing to the VPs deserves something long, lingering, and painful. And, again, I think your former CEO was a jerk.<\/p>\n

(Via JillMatrix<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The author of Dooce.com is out of a job because she made “negative” comments about her workplace on her blog — without naming either the workplace or the individuals therein….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":135583,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/08\/terry-tate-office-linebacker.html","url_meta":{"origin":2157,"position":0},"title":"Terry Tate: Office Linebacker","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Dec-17 8:06am","format":false,"excerpt":"If an armed society is a polite society, then an office linebackered workplace would be a polite workplace. 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He thought life would be EASIER after his boss left. He was WRONG ... 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