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Tech Question

Have You Seen an Online Comment Cause Professional Woes?

Posted Jul 21, 2009 11:47 AM CST
By Sarah Randag

Recently, some management-side employment lawyers spoke up and recommended that as far as praising or panning underlings on LinkedIn, supervisors should stay neutral. As Mitts Milavec partner Carolyn Plump put it, if employers "say something negative, there could be a lawsuit. If they say something positive, there could be a lawsuit."

But we're interested in war stories. Have you ever known of someone who did their career—or someone else's—some harm or even spurred a lawsuit over a LinkedIn review, a personal or work-related blog, or even just a comment on a blog?

Answer in the comments below.

Read the answers to last month's question: Should There Be an Expectation of Permanent Anonymity Online?

Posted by Kathleen Bergin: "Should there be a 'right' to anonymity? No. Not for threats, defamation, incitement, harassment ... I could go on. There’s a reason why some speech isn’t protected, and anonymity doesn’t give you a pass.

"Should there be an “expectation” of anonymity, yes, if that’s the culture of the blog. And it is on most law prof blogs that I’m aware of. In an age when even tenured Profs become the target of purge campaigns, its easy see why anonymity is so important to those who have yet to receive the holy grail. And that won’t change until the rest of us who make hiring and promotion decisions start behaving like the adults in the room.

"Until then, new profs who can’t blog anonymously won’t blog at all. Too bad, because some of them have pretty good stuff to say.

"And that’s our loss, not just theirs."

Comments

1.

B. McLeod
Jul 21, 2009 12:12 PM CST

Say nothing at all, and there could be a lawsuit.  Get up in the morning, and there could be a lawsuit.  Don’t get up in the morning, and there could still be a lawsuit.  It doesn’t matter.  Whatever you do, there could be a lawsuit.  Might as well do what you think is right (hopefully enabling you to defend all the lawsuits).

As far as “war stories,” I don’t know.  Can you give us a follow-up on the kid who rained on his partner’s “victory E-mail”?

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2.

Bean Counter
Jul 21, 2009 2:13 PM CST

Yeah, whatever happen to the kid who got fired for rained on his parnter’s victory email regarding redskins?

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3.

Anonymous
Jul 22, 2009 7:44 AM CST

I testified as an expert witness in an FTC proceeding.  Afterwards, the FTC lawyer pulled me aside and told me that I should be more careful what I post online; he had marked for exhibit a “rap” that I had posted (on Usenet, back in the dark ages, in response to a post seeking my whereabouts), in case I became a “troublesome” witness.  The rap itself was innocuous, except that it probably proved that (this) white man can’t jump (or rap).  I thought it showed more about the weakness of the FTC’s case (they lost) than it did about anything I said.  So, in addition to the chilling effect on me, another lesson might be that you can look stupid or weak trying to exploit the innocent foibles of others, instead of sticking to the substance of the dispute.

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4.

Anonymous
Jul 22, 2009 9:41 AM CST

I worked in a law firm where a partner answered many questions on LinkedIn and encouraged others (including Of Counsel and associates to do so).  Late at night I answered an FMLA question and got reamed by the head of the employment practice in that I did not know who sent that out and could have just conflicted us off a case (small midwestern city - how likely).  That was the beginning of the end of my working for that firm because all that was said about my answer was never brought to the attention of the partner who started and encouraged the whole trend.  And it led me to leave the life of being an attorney at a firm after 10 years and become a solo practitioner - I want to be responsible for my own mistakes and my victories and not be judged by someone who holds partners in a different category than all others.  I hate the statement, but it is true - it takes a village to make a law firm, not some senior partner.

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5.

Anonymous
Jul 23, 2009 7:40 PM CST

In 2002, Heather Armstrong lost her job at a web startup in California because of her blog called “dooce.” Urban Dictionary defines being dooced as losing one’s job because of one’s website.

http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/02_26_2002.html

http://www.dooce.com/archives/daily/05_19_2003.html

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6.

B. McLeod
Jul 25, 2009 1:58 AM CST

Venturing off-topic, the Armstrongs are an old border clan from the Cumberland region.  As I recall the story, the name was granted with the lands, after the clan progenitor, “Fairbairn” (connotations, obvious), saved the life of a Scottish king by using one arm to lift the king, in full battle harness, onto his own horse, after the king’s horse had been killed under him in the fighting.

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