Blogging Can Be Dangerous

May 20th, 2003

I’ve had many a web sites in my day, from the really lame ones to some profitable ones. But one that still strikes fear in my mind is the one where I had a “rant” section, pre-blogging days.

The rant section was mainly for, uhm, ranting; usually about whatever or whomever. In one case I had a nice rant about a few “whomever’s” working at my current job at the time (just to be clear, NOT where I work now, got it?). The details of the rant don’t matter anymore, but mainly I was having some work related issues with a few employees of the company ( I was a “contractor” ) and I felt empowered to speak about them on my web site. I vaguely remember telling one of these people about said web site and not thinking at all I went ahead and posted the rant. Of course, I wasn’t dumb enough to post information such as names or companies. Either way, I got shafted.

A few days later I get called into a conference room with one of the employee’s, indirectly mentioned in the rant only by their associated actions, and was told that they’d read the rant on my web site. They also informed me that I would need to remove the rant if I intended on working there anymore. This person was not a manager, but being that they were an employee and I a lowly contractor, I felt I couldn’t win and removed the rant.

I bring this up now, although many years have passed, because I was directed to another blogger who shared a similar experience but with a much more drastic outcome. ( Thanks Naaman)

I’m sure many other bloggers have shared similar experiences to mine or god forbid, what Dooce went through. But, as much as I’d like to think sometimes that I’m just blogging to myself or even to a very select few individuals, every time I write I’m speaking to the whole world.

Sure, there are days were work isn’t going so well and “ranting” about it may seem like a good way to vent. Don’t do it. I’ve made it a point with my latest entry into the web world not to discuss my current work. I may say, “Hey, work is awesome right now!” or “Boy, what a great weekend, sucks having to go back to work on Monday”, but I will censor myself from any negative diatribes about work.

As for my comments about what happened to Dooce, I think it’s very unfortunate what happened, could be seen as illegal by the company, but I’m no lawyer.

Entry Filed under: blogging