Confessions of a Mad Librarian

Can you get fired for posting about your job/institution on your blog?

In theory -- perhaps. It depends not only on what you post and whether the information could be reasonably viewed as sensitive or libelous, but also whether you're an at-will employee who can be fired without cause (or if you're covered by contractual/informal guidelines that require documentation, warnings, etc.).

In practice -- Oh, yes. It can and has happened.

In the most recent case, Google has apparently fired a new employee over posts he made to his blog. Mark Jen began a blog called ninetyninezeros in mid-January to discuss his new job and living situation (he used to work for Microsoft and moved here from Washington). On January 26, c|net news reported that Jen redacted some information due to criticism that he was posting sensitive information. (The original post can be found here.)

Google Blogoscoped has two posts about Jen's blog and the reprecussions of what he posted: one before it was known what actions might be taken by the company and/or Jen, and one after it was reported that Jen was fired.

Jeremy Zawodny and Robert Scoble are bloggers who write about their companies openly (respectively, Yahoo! and Microsoft) and both comment on Jen's situation. And both give good advice about blogging as employees of specific institutions.

Libraries tend to have really different organizational cultures than publicly-traded, high-profile technology companies (even libraries within those companies). And there may be institutions where none of your supervisors or co-workers read any blogs, let alone your blog. However, don't take that as carte blanche to went whatever frustrations you may have without forethought. Be smart; think before you link (sorry, I couldn't resist ...).