Google Blogger Firing is another cautionary tale

Michael Gartenberg | February 09, 2005, 10:36 AM

Was just chatting with Eric Peterson about this before I get moving. Eric pointed me to Jeremy's site and it would appear that he was fired over his blog (at least in his perception)... Well, I said that more folks would be fired over their weblogs and I was correct. But not shocked. Some of the material from the original posts are below. If these are accurate, then Mark didn't show a lot of good sense. There's a time and place for criticism and comments. Weblogs aren't always the correct medium. Sometimes it's not just what you say, but how you say it and where you say it. We'll probably never know the full story behind these events so it's silly to speculate on what was the straw that broke that camel's back but it's clear that unless you have a VERY tolerant employer and boss, be careful what you put out there for the world to see. Having said that, it's more important than ever for every company to have a clear policy on blogging and what is and what is not acceptable. While common sense should rule, it's clearly not in all cases and it's best for everyone to be on the same page early on, if for no other reason, to stop the rumor mills from churning every time something like this happens.

This is my last word on the subject. If you're a blogger and need advice, give me a call. If you're a company and need a policy, likewise and we'll help you out. Otherwise, a word to the wise is (usually) enough.

Microsoft's health care benefits shame Google's relatively meager offering....

Google demands employees that are 90th percentile material, so what's with the 50th percentile compensation? The packages would've been decent when the company was pre-IPO, but let's be honest here... a stock option with a strike price of $188 just doesn't have the same value as the ones of yesteryear."