I started reading the Dooce blog from the beginning. I’m only on the August 2001 archive (4 months after its inception), and so far I have to say that this Heather woman has some issues. The continuous profanity definitely takes its toll on you after a while — but then, if she thought nobody was watching, shouldn’t it be OK for her to voice her frustrations in whatever way she wants?
Only once (so far) has she said something inappropriate about work… like her post on the Reasons she should not be allowed to work at home. That was a bit over the line. On the other hand, you would be surprised how many people work from home and do things like attending a phone meeting while in the bathroom. That was just an office urban legend I heard a while ago (a guy in an interview flushed the toilet while on the phone with the recruiter), until this actually happened on a conference call I was in a couple of weeks ago (people, learn to use the MUTE button!).
So, is it wrong to come clean and say out loud what a lot of other people are in fact doing while they work from home? Is it even OK for me to even mention that I believe that these things DO happen, but people don’t talk about them?
Back to the freedom of speech and getting fired over blogging, I have a question: if companies are not cool with you using company time to blog, where exactly is the line drawn? For example, I come up with ideas for new blogs ALL the time. Is it OK for me to write my ideas down during the day so I can post them after work? Or should I just make sure that I am not using company resources to write these ideas down? Should I just write them all up on my phone and email them to myself to post later? In a court of law, can my company prove that I was doing non-work related blogging while at work even though I posted the entry at 5:05pm (technically outside work hours)? Do they own my brain power while I am on their clock? Where is the line???
There are no explicit guidelines in my company, so I’m basically at their mercy. Whenever they feel like firing me, they will just make up some excuse and do it.
ina