Google fired an employee over his blog’s content:
Google was not impressed, especially when he compared the Microsoft and Google pay and benefits packages and found Google coming up short. Google fired Jen 11 days into his new job.
My comments:
1. This is not a free speech issue. Freedom of speech can only be abridged by law. Mark Jen is still free to say anything he likes about Google.
2. This is not about privacy. Posting your thoughts on the internet is not private as anyone working for Google ought to know.
3. It is about saying negative things about his employer. If someone decides to say negative things about his employer in a public forum, whether it be TV, radio, newspaper, the internet or standing in front of corporate headquarters with a megaphone, it would behoove him to at least consider that it might result in being fired.
4. I don’t know Mark’s age, but I can’t imagine his being so much younger than me that he would have no idea that it is a longstanding rule of business etiquette that you don’t discuss payroll or benefit matters except with the boss.
5. Mark still blogs at Blogger, still has Google search on his site and still has Adsense ads. Doesn’t look like his nose is too out of joint over it.
6. Let’s hope we don’t see pictures of him striking sexy poses on the back of an airplane seat.
Case in point that it’s not about blogging. A Miller employee got fired when he was photographed drinking a Bud Light.