the perils of....

[mamajoan]

OK, so I got fired today. That's not so interesting. Here's what is interesting...

In the, for lack of a better term, exit interview, my boss said that one of my transgressions was posting uncomplimentary stuff about the company on a public website. I must assume that referred to livejournal, because I haven't said anything bad about the company anywhere but here and on private email lists.

How is this interesting? Let me free-associate for a bit.

My (ex-)boss has been reading my livejournal. I can fairly easily see how he would have found it; either linking from my website (I had tried to keep the URL a secret at work, but I know a few people knew it and could have told him), or by looking at my screen if I left my desk for a moment and had livejournal up on the screen. (Pause to appreciate the amusement value of picturing my boss ducking into my cube to read Tham's musings on the deliciousness of the blow job.)

So he reads my lj and sees uncomplimentary stuff about the company on there. What was his thought process? Did it go, "Gee, my employee is unhappy with the company. Perhaps I should talk to her about it"? Or was it more like "Oh look, my employee is looking for another job. Better fire her before she up and quits." Or maybe just a simple "You insult the company, yer outta there."

Ethics, and/or legality. Is a person no longer free to speak her mind? Yes, livejournal is a public website. It's basically the same as if I wrote down my opinions and tacked them to the front door of my apartment. I have a right to express my opinions. Doing so does not justify firing me. In fact, I don't know offhand whether I've ever actually mentioned the company name on livejournal. (But I do mention it on my website -- in the purely neutral sense of "this is the company where I work" -- so maybe that's moot.)

I don't mean to imply that he had no reason to fire me. I freely admit that he did. I was deeply unhappy at the company and had been slacking off in a major way for months because of that. I said as much on livejournal many times. I accept responsibility for my actions (or lack thereof ;) ). I don't claim that he was / they were wrong to fire me. I'm just interested in the fact that he saw fit to *mention* my free expression of my opinions while he was in the process of firing me.

Of course, some of the time, I was exercising said First Amendment rights on company time and with company resources. I guess that might make a difference. ;)

Should I now be all self-conscious, worried that ex-boss is going to be reading all of this? Should I censor myself? (Fuck that, in case you had any doubts.) Or will he have washed his hands of me already, mentally? I hope he has gotten/will get a big kick out of reading my self-indulgent whining about fanfic, my blithering about dreams and tofu. (Or should I be all childish and call him names here, and then hope he reads it?)

Oh well. I'm sure I'll have more musings and rantings later, but for now, it's time to go get drunk and drown my sorrows in a team-trivia game. If I'm really lucky, the rain will let up and I can watch the Sox kick some ass while we're trivia-ing.

Comments

[calligrafiti.livejournal.com]

Well, that sucks. I'm sorry that you're out of work, even work that you didn't much like. Good luck with the job hunt. And if your boss is reading and keeps reading your LJ, you may soon have the joy of imagining him reading about your wonderful experiences at a fabulous new job.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

heh! That's something to look forward to. Thanks. :)

[obsessedmuch.livejournal.com]

God, that just sucks. Yeah, unhappy with job and all but still, getting fired bites the big one, and the boss' mentioning that he's read your LJ is creepy and offputting. Hopefully this can be turned into the start of better things career-wise though.

Best,
Lar

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I'm waffling a bit between upset and relieved. I told some friends I felt weird for not being more upset, and they were like, "dude, you fuckin' hated that job. Why be upset?" I'm trying to internalize that attitude. :)

[wickdzoot.livejournal.com]

Yikes! ::hugs::

[jrosehale.livejournal.com]

Oh, baby--I hear ya. I actually removed my livejournal link from my personal site because of this fear, and I still suspect there are a few people reading it whom I wouldn't want to have reading it. But I'm a big-ol' ho, so I keep writing.

And it doesn't surprise me at all that your boss commented on the existence of the blog rather than on dealing with the complaints you brought up. It's so much easier just to say good-bye to you than to think about the validity of what you said. If they wanted to change, they would change. But this way, the "rabble-rouser" is gone and they can keep doing what they're doing.

I've seen this happen over and over again.

Good luck with moving on; you're so much better off when you have the potential for happiness somewhere else.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

There's probably something to what you say about the rabble-rousing. Maybe I oughtn't have posted that stuff on livejournal, but you know what, a person has the right to express her opinions, dammit. Anyway, thanks for the kind words. :)

[thamiris.livejournal.com]

Is your boss on crack??? I can't believe that they're firing you for that. It doesn't even sound legal, and it's certainly not ethical. For what it's worth, Joan, you have my sympathy. On the positive side, it sounds like you were very unhappy, so this will give you the chance to find something that you'll better enjoy.

:::::::hugs:::::::::

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

aw, thanks. :) But don't get me wrong, they didn't fire me because of anything I said on lj. They fired me because I was slacking off at work (which in turn was because I was so unhappy there). Still, it was weird for the boss to even mention lj, and I'm still puzzling over it.

[lunaris1013.livejournal.com]

You have both my condolences and congratulations. Both are in order, no?

FWIW, I've been where you are and it turned into a very positive thing for me to leave the old job. I hope it works out as well for you.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

You have both my condolences and congratulations. Both are in order, no?

Heh, yeah. Thanks. :) I do have high hopes that this will turn out to have been a good thing.

[icebun.livejournal.com]

I am just echoing previous comments here, but that is just horrible. And like Lar said, creepy and offputting. I would hasten to agree with Tham, the legality of what he did, is way dodgy.

What a truly ghastly man.

Take care
Y.

[musesfool.livejournal.com]

Hugs, chica.

I've been in a similar sitch, except I managed to leave before they fired me.

I took some time off, got my act together, and now I'm happy as a lark in a job that doesn't make me insane and ill.

So I'm sure this can only be a good thing in the long run. Being unhappy in the place you spend at least a third of your day sucks, and no one should have to put up with it.

Good luck on finding something more suitable.

~victoria

[tiggrrl.livejournal.com]

Damn. I have real issues about my LJ privacy, which is why a lot of my posts are locked for friends only. Nonetheless, I would be really upset if I found out that someone I didn't like (and your boss obviously fits that category for you) had been snooping around. Does it matter that they know I made granola last night? No, what matters is that I didn't tell them I made granola, and they didn't ask what I did last night, nor do they really care what I did, they were just snooping around.

My guess is that the guy wanted to fire you, and did the snooping in order to find something to use against you and justify the firing. Your LJ posts about slacking off might have been used for that. And for the record, I don't think you ever posted the company name.

[mamajoan.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I've never really worried about lj privacy, because I figured the intersection between people who would stumble across it and people who would give a shit was pretty small. It never really occurred to me that my boss would find it. I guess that was maybe a little dumb.

I'm pretty sure he did want to fire me, and my livejournal posts were just one more way for him to justify it. Whatever.

Argh!

[xochiquetzl]

Wow. This is just unbelievably sucky. :(

I've found that I tend to self-censor in LJ anyway precisely because I'm afraid of stuff like this. That, and I'm a great big bottler. I really admire that you don't. I kind of feel like I'm missing the whole LJ point when I self-censor, and yet I can't stop myself.

Argh!

[owlrigh.livejournal.com]

I've had the same sort of "oh no, people read my journal, people I don't like, and I feel like censoring myself" thoughts before. So I do censor what I say to some degree, and then put the rest as friends-only. I keep thinking ... what if they saw this, and I don't want them to. Then think -- fuck 'em. I'm having a good time, and they can go eat crow seeing that I'm having a good time and ... yeah. Good that you got yourself a new job since your being fired, however :)