Ethical Blogging

Over at the “Work Related Blog and news” there is a good post on employees that blog. Most of us have read the story about the Google employee who was sacked for his blogging about his company. There was the Delta employee who got sacked for posting a picture of her colleagues in Delta uniform.

While I think these people were pawns in a political game, the problem still exists. Where are the boundaries and what should you do?

I call myself the Blogging Boss and even own the domain. Why would a boss blog?

I created my blog a year ago for one reason. I felt there was a need for surrogate managers. After being in management for 17 years, I see the chasm that exists between management and staff resulting from bad management. Unfortunately there are more bad managers than good managers and employees need help. My readers concur.

The post I am referring to at the Work Related Blog recommends the following policy changes for companies:

Disclaimer of Organizational Responsibility. Require employees to state that any opinions they express about work-related matters are their own and are not attributable to the organization. Additionally, require bloggers to affirmatively take responsibility and liability for any work-related content or materials contained in their blog.

Copyrighted Material. Inform employees of the potential civil and criminal penalties for posting copyrighted material in a blog without authorization.

Respectfulness. State that blogs may not be used to attack or insult the company, its products, its executives, supervisors, coworkers, competitors, or competitor’s products.”

While I think these are good ideas, I would be hesitant to recommend these suggestions to the average employee without a good lawyer,

While I blog about work-related issues, some of which I deal with on a regular basis, I will never blog about my employer. I have two employers actually, including my own company. I can blog about whatever I want to blog about when it deals with my own company; however, I will never blog about a company where I am employed in whatever capacity and that I do not own.

A “disclaimer that opinions are my own” does not stop my employer from being materially damaged by things I might say about my job.

If an employee posts corporate IP (intellectual property) or copyrighted material, which should already be covered by corporate privacy, compliance and other HR documents that you sign. Even if your company gave you permission to do it, I would really think hard about it.

Here is my hard and fast rule. Never blog about a company you work for and do not own. You can always blog about your general experiences and get your point across. Even if you quit working for a company, I find it unprofessional and unethical when an ex-employee rips their ex-employer to shreds in a world-wide public forum.

Blog responsibly.