Problems with Blogs

If you look to the right, you'll see that I've linked to a blog called 'Man vs. Clown.' Other than being incredibly titled, it is also one of the most consistently funny websites I know of. Peter Lynn, its author, is snarky, cruel, thoughtful, and downright hilarious all at the same time. I've never met Mr. Lynn, but I know that not only would I like to have a beer from him, but I'd like to write like him. In his short posts, he's able to tell a better story than I can with three pages and a picture of Garrison Keiler sitting on my desk (Note: I do not actually have a picture of Garrison Keiler on my desk. If I did have one, it would probably look like this picture).

Until recently, Lynn worked for an unnamed fitness magazine as a copy editor. He ruled over the English language in that office like a feudal lord over his serfs, taking their wheat and sleeping with newly married women. And he posted about his antics on his blog, often to water-spewing and keyboard-ruining effects. I say recently, because then this happened:

Resuming our scheduled programming, I'm posting this in my bathrobe on a Wednesday afternoon. Although you can't possibly see that, which is best for both of us, the keen observer will also note that this blog's archives are looking a little thinner than before.

Without getting into all the details about what exactly happened, suffice it to say that when a stern-faced man flips open a thick folder to reveal a stack of printouts, and at the the top of the first page is printed "Man vs. Clown", the opportunities for sleeping in and wearing one's bathrobe increase immediately.

So Peter Lynn was fired for writing in his personal blog. He never mentioned the company, and while he talked about the job and the people in the office, he never was particularly deragatory towards either. He seems to be a natural prankster and likely to tease people, so he wrote about particuarly good jokes, but I don't feel anything he wrote was over the line.

This worries me, because there are definite simularities between Mr. Lynn and myself. We both post in blogs with our names on it. We both talk about work (though he does to a much larger extent). And neither of us seem to be particuarly self censoring.

I decided to do this blog openly declaring my name for a few reasons. The first is that, frankly, I have nothing to hide. I have no problem telling just about anyone, including total strangers about anything in my life, so why should I be any different online? Another reason is that, in general, I'm proud of my writing. Cush poked fun at me the other week for mentioning my blog in conversation, making like I was a dick for doing that. I bring it up like that because, yes, I'm proud of this and I want people to read it. So if I'm proud of something, why should I not have my name attached to it?

I make sure in my writing of this blog to not put anything that would hurt other people. I don't write about old relationships, I don't make fun of people (unless they're my friends who I make fun of anyways), and I don't use this as a method of spreading gossip. But I also find myself trying to be truthful, so I do occasionally talk about work. Not all of it is competely complimentary. But should I be punished for this?

The internet is a new phenomoemon, one that our culture is having trouble adapting to. Whether its getting fired for writings on the internet, dying without passing on passwords, or using AIM to creepily come onto 16-year-old congressional pages, society is having trouble adjusting to this series of tubes we call teh intarweebs. And in the case of Peter Wynn, we run into the conflict of a person's freedom of expression and a company's right to protect itself. I know my dad will have wildly different views on this, the corporate man that he is, but I think Lynn was the one done wrong here. He was expressing himself in a public forum, all the while maintaining outsider's knowledge of who his employers actually were at a minimum. This, I feel was a happy medium for both. Lynn could express himself, while everyone who read him was unaware of who Lynn worked for.

I realize I'm starting to ramble here, so I'll put a stop to it now. But I would like to hear anyone else's opinions. What are the boundary lines with blogs and work? What should be the point where an employer is able to fire an employee, and how far can an employee go when talking about work? And should a company spell this all out if they are going to dismiss employees over it?