Google blogger: 'I was terminated'

[BryonD]

So what you're saying is that I have the right to reply, but I don't have the right to be understood when I don't express myself clearly...

 

[Mark]

I quit smoking last July after about 25 years or so. I didn't threaten to fire myself, though. Still, the difference in healthcare insurance rates is significant and it's amazing how much one or two smokers can effect the costs to every single employee in the company. If I knew that one or two people smoking was costing me better healthcare, or causing my children or spouse to get lesser care, I'd probably be a bit unhappy, too. It's hard to argue that there is any upside to smoking, regardless if it is a personal choice. And believe me, I'm not one to read people the riot act as a way to reinforce my own newly found non-smoking status. I think this is only the second or third time I have mentioned it to anyone, at all. I simply stopped for my own sake.

(But this is getting a little "bloggy", isn't it, Eric?)

 

[Mark]

So what you're saying is that I have the right to reply, but I don't have the right to be understood when I don't express myself clearly...

Only when it conflicts with my right to be confused.

 

[Truth Seeker]

Can you imagine if someone were hired by some company and then on their off hours stood out in the parkling lot or on the sidewalk and ranted to everyone that would pass by?

if it is the company's parkiing lot...yup..yer canned.

 

[Krieg]

Ehh... its pretty close to the same.
One person has the right to smoke and another person has the right to elect to not enter into (or maintain) a voluntary business agreement with them.

It is a bit different in my book.

An employee who is badmouthing their employer is actually damaging the business which is certain grounds for termination. That is a very different issue than a lifestyle choice that someone makes and that they practice on their own time.

Do I have the right to fire an employee because they eat at McDonalds several times a week? Or because they have unprotected sex with their same sex partner?

An argument can be made (however tenous) that both of those situations also have the potential to cause an employer's premiums to go up.

 

[Crothian]

I don't like it. It is bad fom to bad mout th comapny but there is a difference beween actually hating the company and blowing off steam after a bad day. I'm sure most of us have done that, I've vented to friends about my jobs in the past. Sure these people get to complain to lots more people, but I see it as no different then me getting fired after complaining about my job at the weekly poker game.

 

[d20Dwarf]

but I see it as no different then me getting fired after complaining about my job at the weekly poker game.

Then I don't think you are thinking about it, Crothian.

Posting to a public website is no different than leaving fliers on the street, wearing a t-shirt that badmouths the company, or taking out an ad in a local newspaper. It is an unrestrained public criticism, which is completely different than just blowing off steam with friends in private.

 

[Krieg]

Dwarf is correct. The problem is that for a lot of us our perceptions regarding what constitutes private vs public speech have not caught up with the realities imposed by the internet.

I would be willing to bet that more than a few of us would consider this thread to be more along the lines of friendly banter among friends. Unfortunately the reality is very different as some random bloke in Mongolia (or anywhere else in the world) doing a google search using the right parameters could very well stumble across it.

Like it or not pretty much anything we say or do online becomes a matter of public record.

 

[Dark Jezter]

When you bite the hand that feeds you, don't be surprised if it stops doing so.

 

[Krieg]

...and whatever you do don't get caught drinking the competitor's product!

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=816&e=3&u=/ap/20050211/ap_on_fe_st/beer_bust