Can Blogging Get You Fired?

Can it? That’s the question I asked myself when I joined my last company. After all, I was blogging on a part time basis (at night), and I needed a full-time job to pay for my student loans. I remember the first time I interviewed with the Vice President of operations at my previous company. The gentleman asked me about what I was doing at the time, and whether I was prepared to give it up. Of course, I was not ready at the time to give up my blogging endeavor. I was lucky that the company was all for allowing employees to keep their small businesses as long as there was no conflict of Internet.

So I was allowed to keep my blog, but I was told that I could not blog about a certain topic. It was a bit like signing a partial no compete deal. You don’t blog about our niche, and you can anything you want. A lot of folks wouldn’t think twice about signing such as agreement. But in truth, even with such a contract in place, you can still get fired from your job if you don’t watch yourself. What most folks don’t get is that once you sign on the dotted line, you become a spokesman for your company. You can’t just go on Twitter or on your own blog and start attacking other blatantly. For instance, I would recommend you attacking President Obama and calling him a terrorist if you want to keep your job.

Blogging can get your fired, depending on what you do. Let’s say you are a Walmart employee, and you decide to leak Black Friday information on a blog or forum. You can bet that if you are found out, you are going to get the boot. Some companies even sue their former employees for damages (I wouldn’t recommend working for these companies). My rule of thumb is, if I need the money and want to stay in my job for a while, I watch myself and avoid controversial issues.

Now if you are bold and fearless, you can break the rules. But don’t expect to be given any mercy by your company. I could have easily started a blog on that forbidden niche when I was at work, but I knew that wasn’t the way I wanted to go out. Getting fired can be tough, and I hate being sacked. So, I decided to avoid getting into that niche in all cost for as long as I was working for my employer. Blogging is a wonderful thing, and you should definitely not give it up completely. But it can be dangerous if you push the boundaries.