AT&T Internet Users Cry Foul Over New Pricing Structure
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Sacked For Blogging

Stupidity

from the bad-management dept

Tue, Jan 28th 2003 8:12am — Mike Masnick
The Register has a story of a guy who apparently has been fired for blogging. The way it's described, the guy was just called into his boss's office one day and told to pack his bags due to his blog, which he'd been writing for over a year. He says his old boss knew about the blog and thought it was fine, but his new one seemed to think it was such a horrible infraction that he needed to be fired on the spot. The guy even offered to stop writing the blog, but was told it was too late for such things. It sounds like there was something else going on here, because I can't understand what about having the blog would be considered a fireable offense. However, for the most part, you can fire people for almost any reason (minus those listed in certain civil rights laws), so I doubt any laws were violated. If the reason really is his blog, then it does show a certain level of idiocy found in the guy's boss/management.
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  • identicon
    Oliver Wendell Jones, 28 Jan 2003 @ 8:22am

    Hmm...

    It sounds like he was writing the blog on company time, using company resources to do so (PC and internet connection). He says something about he spent no more time working on this than his coworkers spent on cigarette breaks.

    This sounds more like an issue involving misuse of resources than a first amendment issue.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Chris, 28 Jan 2003 @ 8:29am

    No Subject Given

    I've read his blog. He is a writer. Firing a writer, for writing, seems idiotic to me. It could be argued that his blog was a marketing tool that could draw readers to his paying gig. He didn't really fight it, which leads me to believe that there are other issues, or that he wanted out anyway - just on his terms.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Clinton Jones, 1 Nov 2003 @ 10:53am

    Blogsecution

    Yes, this is a typical blogsecution, a current model of the firings that might have happened if you had written a letter to the newspaper exposing a bunch of internal information. I believe more will follow.

    It is a basic contravention of non disclosure agreements that most employees are expected to sign upon engagement. The issue here was the photo more than the text I believe.

    [ link to this | view in chronology ]


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