HUMAN RESOURCES -- Blogged Out of a Job!

By Randy Hamilton
Hamilton Human Resources

I read an article that I think is appropriate to today’s technology and issues employers face in virtually every industry. I did not write the original piece, but have added materials I believe are essential. Regardless, this is an issue many companies are facing with increasing concern.

Can employees "diss" your company on the Internet and get away with it? In a growing number of cases, the answer is No. I remember last December Time magazine named as its Person of the Year-a title usually reserved for world leaders and Nobel Prize winners-"You." They even attached a mirror to the magazine so that "You" could see your picture on the cover. The Internet has let just about anyone with a computer stake a claim to fame these days, by writing a blog, creating a personal Web page on sites such as MySpace.com, or starring in a personal video on sites like YouTube.com. Through the power of the net, whatever they do then becomes available for the whole world to see.

What most people on the Net probably don't count on, though, is that among their audience are employers. And while Internet celebrity can make you famous, it can also cost you your job. There's even a name for this phenomenon ... getting "dooced." The name comes from a blog whose creator met that fate.
There have been two paths to losing ... or not getting ... a job via the Internet: One starts with the fact that, increasingly, employers on the hire are looking past pristine resumes and rock-solid interviews to other expressions of their candidate's minds. The other path to unemployment opens when bloggers, mistakenly, as it turns out, think their blogs are private, protected, or untraceable and then use them to knock bosses or co-workers, or to reveal future products or other company secrets.

In fact, blogs are not protected, either under free speech rights (which don't apply to private companies) or the freedom of the press provisions of the Constitution, say legal experts. And, especially if written on company computers and/or company time, they have no protection under privacy rules. This is true even if the blogger uses his or her private outside-provider account on a company computer.
Some experts similarly believe that there is no protection against employment actions based on disparaging or untrue remarks about the company, even if the blogger uses a personal computer at home to make them.

I provide Human Resource consulting service to business owners, which includes writing Employee Handbooks. After being made aware of such issues, I strongly urge each business owner to stand on secure ground about taking a worker to task about blogging. I recommend business owners write a policy and publish it in the Employee Handbook that addresses the following:

--Prohibits the publication of either employer or client proprietary information
--Bans negative remarks about the company, management, and co-workers
--Outlaws the use of company time or equipment to post to personal blogs

Be sure to also put employees on notice that they're being monitored, and that not only blogs but also instant messages, e-mails, and even cell phone text messages are covered under this policy. Let them also know that the way technology works, even if the delete key is pressed, every message leaves an electronic trail that's both traceable to them and accessible by you.

Randy Hamilton is president of Hamilton Human Resources Inc. Email: randyhamilton@columbus.rr.com