Reasons not to post on Company time

[richlevy]

Free Expression Can Be Costly When Bloggers Bad-Mouth Jobs

This is why I do not post from work. One of the reasons I don't use a screen name is to remind myself that I am responsible for what I say. IMO, an employer owns the computer and the phone so they have a say in how it is used.

As for what is posted on a person's own time off-site, I'll go to the mat for the spirit of the First Amendment there. Everyone should remember that the First Amendment is not absolute. However, besides slander, libel, death threats,incting riots, etc, it pretty much is.

I believe Robert Heinlein once wrote of the expression 'spit on the floor and call the cat a bastard' (do an Internet search on the phrase). While a company can claim "my house, my rules", I can make the same claim in my house.

The reason we in the United States have a tradition of privacy, is that public behavior seldom reflects private behavior. To put it mildly, if all companies had 'morality clauses' in their contracts and knew what their employees were doing, 3/4 of the American work force would be unemployable.

Of course, in pre-Internet days (P.I.) a company may not know have known that their marketing VP was a transvestite headbanger, or at least could have plausible deniability. If he or she now has a weblog or hosts a fansite, this is more easily found.

We are in for interesting times.