It’s Been a Great Run . . .
For those who come looking for a short, thoughtful read, a blogging life discussion, or a way to gradually ease back into the week. I offer this bloggy life question. . . .
You’ve been hearing rumors.
This weekend’s financial programs and news reports have confirmed it. Your mid-sized company has just been sold to a major corporation. Who knows why they bought it?
You know plenty about the corporation and their policies. You’ve been following them on the blogs for 2 or 3 years. The biggest issues are their stance against net neutrality, their attempts to squash anything opensource, and their flat-out policy against ANY employee or vendor blogging.
You read the corporate policy documents — they were passed around the Internet as examples of Big Brother. Basically, this buyout will mean that you will be required to close down your blog. It doesn’t matter that you blog about unrelated subjects — your content could not be connected to the company where you work or the corporation that bought it. The No Blog Tolerance rule is unbendable according to ex-employees of the behemoth enterprise who now owns your company.
How will you respond to coming ultimatum?
–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!
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I would start an editorial campaign in the media comparing such control to China and other repressive countries and then work on a version of the Boston Tea Party for bloggers among employees.
If my blog was unrelated to the companys core business, and I couldn’t be connected to the business, I would keep on blogging. The reason: I’m not a slave. The company pays me to do a job for a certain number of hours a day and what I do in my own time is not theirs to dictate. Should I stop watching certain news channels, reading certain books, or visiting certain websites if they tell me to as well?
While I am (should) also be required to uphold the business image, if my blog cannot be connected to their business, they have no say in it. And really, as I said before, slavery has been abolished in most of the world for quite some time now. Employers are not the masters of our lives.
Of course, this would not stop them from sacking me if they found out (in the US, in Australia we have unfair dismissal laws to protect workers) so I would be prepared for the possibility. It’s always wise to be prepared with some savings, network, and an up-to-date resume anyway.
Ah Sage,
I wondered whether anyone would be a rebel! Glad to see you’re not standing still for it. 😉
Hi Stropp!
I’m wondering how long I would last anyway with a “regime” that was so totally disconnected from my core values. I’d figure I’d better start looking.
Keep on blogging. 🙂
I would not stop blogging under those circumstances, but I wouldn’t want to go against company policy or have to do something I love in secret. I’m also not really good at doing jobs I hate. If they were truly entitled to make such a policy and enforce it, I would quit. Sounds like a job I wouldn’t really want to do anyway (I’ve been lucky enough so far not to have to work so that I wouldn’t starve or lose my home).
I would say the company would have a very hard time defending the constitutionality of that rule – so whether you tried them in the local media or in a court, I couldn’t see them holding on to that stance. Plus if they tried to fire you at that stage, even in an at-will state, I would imagine it would cause them considerable problems.
Loophole for the company? – Maybe if you were deriving income from the blog and they had some kind of exclusionary clause in their contract.
Hi Kristarella!
In my family, we call that integrity. I think it’s probably why you’ve never had to worry about having a job. 🙂
Hi Rowan,
Apparently in lawyer-think, any word you say can be held against them. I’m not certain that’s so. However, it’s the lack of trust that would probably draw the line for me. Whether I won the fight wouldn’t matter . . .
It would depend upon how much I loved my job and how close I was to the people with whom I work.
If I was already feeling like the J-O-B was confining me like a tightly tied straight jacket, I guess that new policy would be the “grease” to get me out.
Hi Liz – I would leave. There is no way I could work for a company that is trying to kill freedom of speech.
And I would persuade other bloggers to help me stop the evil company from killing the Internet.
Truthfully, I would start looking for another job, but until then I would keep blogging. It usually takes time for acquired companies to adopt the policies of their purchaser, sometimes years. I would hurry up, but I would make them fire me before giving up on something I love.
That is another point for self-employment! No corporate policies to confine me or to silence the Left Thumb Blogger!
Glenda!
I find it hard to think of anyone being able to silence you!
I’ll take that as a compliment, I think!