Don't Get Dooced!

A recent article in The Washington Post talks about a new phenomenon in the world of blogging: getting "dooced." This phrase means getting fired for blogging about your job. From criticizing coworkers and company policies to discussing a corporation's financial performance and upcoming products, it has happened to quite a few folks recently. Even a Google employee, the company whose motto is "Do No Evil," got dooced for doing the latter. On the bright side, at least he has more time to devote to his blog! Some of these people thought they were being clever by using fake names and the like, but it's usually pretty obvious for friends and coworkers to figure out who you're talking about.

I've been pretty careful about not mentioning my day job here. Don't get me wrong, I love my company, enjoy my job, and really like the vast majority of my coworkers. But, I think it is an inappropriate forum for such comment. After all, you can't control who reads these things. Plus, there is a certain permanence to blogging: everything is archived. In the real world, you might hate your job one day and love it the next. But, those nasty comments you made months ago can still be accessed as if they were written today. My other thought is that, especially in a public-type setting like this, you should never bite the hand that feeds you. It's pretty well known among my friends that I thought my previous employer was run by the greediest bunch of bastards on the planet (I swear they were all ex-used car salesmen), but I would never have said that here while still accepting a paycheck from those jerks every other week. That would've been a bit hypocritical. Anyway, my advice is, as always, be safe my friends...and don't. get. dooced.