After blogging about her sex life, Jessica Cutler was fired from her job as a U. S. Senator's aide and then ended up with a book deal. Most people who are fired for blogging are less fortunate. Few of the now more than 100 million blogs are even interesting, let alone sensational. The Internet has become littered with bloggers whining about their jobs. Few read them; less care. The only interested party is the employer, who often gives the employee the impetus to start a new one --about unemployment.
Most people blog the way they speak, moaning about perceived petty injustices. "I should have been promoted instead of Nancy." "Christina is lazy and I end up doing her work" "My boss shouldn't have his job." But blogging is not analagous to grumbling to your partner at home. A blog, like everything online, is both permanent and public.
Jessica Clarke didn't think about that, when she blogged about her job as a personal caregiver at a home for the aged. She complained about her "lazy, slow" co-workers, described her employer's new residential facility as "a hole" and even ridiculed a resident with Parkinson's disease. She also referred to her managers as "stupid f---ing a--holes" who kept making mistakes. After reading the blog, Ms. Clarke's managers decided to fire her. Her union fought her dimissal and lost.
Many white collar employees make the same mistake. One woman in an Alberta government office wrote that "imbeciles and idiot savants (no offense to them) were running the ship". She described her co-workers as "stupid, cheap or stuck-up." When a taxpayer complained about her to the provincial Ombudsperson, she blogged that the woman had "ratted her out." She called one of her bosses the "Lunatic in Charge" and another a "power-hungry wench." When her employer perused her blog, she was fired. She and her union also lost her suit.
When an employee is rude and insubordinate to a manager, continued employment can be untenable, which is why blogging about your workplace is often cause for discharge.
However, if a blog does not relate to work, an employee has considerable leeway. One B. C. warehouse worker glorified Nazism and Hitler on his blog and described fantasies of violent attacks. Horrified, his employer fired him. But his hatred wasn't directed toward his employer or co-workers. As a result, there was no legal cause to fire him and he was reinstated at arbitration.
The courts deem Internet libel to be more serious than other forms of libel because of its permanent and international circulation, so it follows that disparaging comments about an employer also will be treated more seriously than comments with limited coverage. Employers can protect themselves by including rules about blogs in their Internet policies.
When an employer discovers such blogs it should: - Print the blog to preserve the evidence; - Consider whether anything the employer, the workplace or the employees are adversely affected; - Consult with counsel to determine whether the employee can be justifiably disciplined or fired.
--- - Howard Levitt, counsel to Lang Michener LLP, is an employment lawyer who practises in eight provinces and is author of The Law of Dismissal for Human Resources Professionals. He can be reached at hlevitt@langmichener.ca