Get A Policy Already
Mood
Frustrated
Nothing irritates me more then being punished for doing something wrong that you didn't realize, and had no warning, was wrong in the first place.
A woman posted non sexual pictures of herself on her personal site in her work uniform, and was suspended from her job with no pay for it. Granted it was the companies uniform, and therefore they have the right to reprimand if they wish. But, one, they gave no warning, and two they had no explicit policy against it.
There is guidance which suggests the company uniform cannot be used without approval from management, but use in personal pictures on websites is unclear.BBC News - Blogger grounded by her airline
She has filed a compaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Unfortunately this is a much broader issue then just one woman and one blog.
Jeffrey Matsuura, director of the law and technology programme at the University of Dayton, said personal websites can be hazardous for both employers and their employees.BBC News - Blogger grounded by her airline"There are many examples of employees who have presented some kind of material online that have gotten them in trouble with employers," he said.
It was crucial that any policy about what was and what was not acceptable was expressed clearly, was reasonable, and enforced fairly in company policy.
"You have to remember that as an employee, you don't have total free speech anymore," he said.
Mr Matsuura added that some companies actively encouraged employees to blog.
"One of the areas where it does become a problem is that they encourage this when it suits them, but they may not be particularly clear when they [employees] do cross the line."
He speculated that Delta might be concerned that the fictional content on the blog may be linked back to the airline after the images of Ms Simonetti in uniform were posted.
"Whether or not that is successful will depend on what exactly is prohibited, and whether you can reasonably say this content now crosses that line," he said.
Ms Simonetti said her suspension has caused two of her friends to discontinue their blogs. One of them was asked to stop blogging by his company before any action was taken.
"If they had asked me just take down the blog, I would have done it, but that was not been given to me as an option," she said.
"This blogging thing is obviously a new problem for employers and they need to get a policy about it. If I had known it would cost me my job, I would not have done that."
And, of course, once a blogger is fired or quits it can backfire on the company spectacularly. You know... repression, rebellion, the elation of sudden freedom and all that. Does this mean a blogger (granted she would have to be a semi-popular one) suddenly has more power in the work place then a non-blogger? Hmm...
Posted by Bitsy at 01:33 PM Comments
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