Ask First, Blog Later

Libel law applies to bloggers, too.  But employers are within their rights to be concerned about opinions that reflect negatively on their business – or at all.  Great comment.

A staff member whose husband reads his employees' emails assumed I did the same.  This remarkable assumption illustrates the "Big Brother" paranoia that electronic communication creates.  Whereas social interaction is subject to the fault of memory and nuance of context, the written word is persistent.

Changing times bring changing rules. Just about every organization has IT and "computer use" policies now, indicating that information created on the employer's computer belongs to the company not the employee. Also there is no reasonable exoectation of privacy for such information eg employers may legally read your emails or monitor your Internet activity at work.

Now that blogging has become so popular, many companies now have a Corporate Blogging Policy. Such policies generally outline rules of behavior such as not sharing proprietary information, not speaking ill of employers or fellow employees, and not using foul, offensive or socially inappropriate language for example. Almost always, there will be the expectation that you make it clear what views are yours and which ones are official organizational positions.

Of course, it is expected that your blogging activities will not interfere with your regular work. So employers are concerened with a lawsuit, public image and productivity.

Free speech rights under the First Amendment are not unlimited. It becomes trickier when an employeee chooses to blog on their own time. Even then it is perfectly legal for employers to set guidelines by which employees have to abide.

Good question.  I think it depends on the setting.  A blog, in particular, is the electronic equivalent of posting a note on a bulletin board in a shopping mall – anybody can read it.  A comment or response that is part of a conversation can probably be posted as you describe.  A blog isn’t part of a conversation but hopes, perhaps, to start one.

An employer has an expectation that employees reflect the values of the organization, depending on its culture and your role.  A hospital, for instance, has to trust that employees will say good things about the care rendered, respect privacy, and so on.  Depending on what is happening in the hospital, senior management may be very sensitive to what employees are saying.

A laboratory technologist writing a pro-life blog may have a different impact than a nurse on an obstetrics ward.  Both reflect the writer’s values.  Your employer may want to know that you are sensitive to the impact you have as its representative.  I don’t think there’s any harm in asking first.

So should one just post comments and list first name only and maybe the city without an institution? This would prevent the comments from  reflecting back on the employer. If I were to choose to do a prolife blog, I think it might violate my constitutional rights if an employer insisted that I stop.