Workplace Blogging Policies

"According to a survery done by the Society for Human Resources Management in July, 85% of companies do not have a written policy that provides employees with guidelines on what is acceptable to write about in a personal blog." - Amy Joyce, Washington Post

Why would workplaces need guidelines about blogs? you might ask. Well, because apparently some people have actually been fired from their jobs because of something they wrote or pictures they posted in a personal blog. I myself have been astonished at some of the information people carelessly leave in their blogs. While using the "next blog" button I have come across serious work related blogs by people in the finance industry who apparently don't realize that their blogs are still accessible to the world! People like that are just asking to be discovered and fired. However, at the same time, if a person were to be completely anonymous and change all names, dates, situations, etc., who would really know?

The problem with blogging (like with email) is that there is always a traceable path. Kind of scary. Any work done on a workplace computer has the potential to be found. Even if you don't save it, there's the possibility that your network is interconnected and the tech guys are able to see what is going on on your computer screen. At least, that was my experience when I was doing administrative work at an investment banking firm last year. Any time I saw this little red eye on the bottom right side of my toolbar the ITS guys were checking out what I was doing. Actually, one time when my computer was having a virus problem the computer guy just flipped a switch or something and was able to work on fixing my computer from a completely different room! Woah!

So, I guess to make a long story short, think twice about what you write in your blog or in email. Some things are best left written in an old fashioned paper journal or not written at all!