"Complaining is good for you as long as you're not complaining to the person you're complaining about." --Lynn Johnston, cartoonist
I've been hearing stories about employees who start personal blogs and then complain about their job or somone they work with (usually a manager or executive). Next thing you know the employee gets fired for what they say on the blog.
I have mixed feelings about this. I can understand that employers want to get rid of employees who don't enjoy where they work, but we as people have the right to exercise our freedom of speech. Granted, if you have a complaint about someone you work with, you should probably take that up with the person in question. Sit down and have a good heart to heart.
For me, complaining gets you nowhere. All it does is spread negative energy. It affects the environment and everyone else you work with. Ultimately the customer suffers because of it.
Maria, nice post. One of the reasons many businesses still don't have blogs is that they are afraid to deal with their employees possibly saying something inappropriate on the company blog. It's an important subject to think about before publishing anything to a corporate blog.
Similarly, it's important to establish clear guidelines regarding internal complaints. If your employee is complaining inappropriately about someone else at your company, how do you deal with it? A simple, yet clear policy is important to have. No one wants to suddenly just get "dooced" (fired for something they blogged about).
Posted by: Easton Ellsworth | March 29, 2006 12:48 PM | Permalink to Comment