Quick Cites

Citations to Literature by Brenda Wolfe, Director
Herman Reference Room

Q: What should human resource professionals know about blogging in the workplace?

QC: For the uninitiated, blogs, or web logs, are online journals that may chronicle details of some aspect of a blogger’s life. People blog about everything, and anything, including hobbies, politics, and work life.
For employers, a key issue related to blogs is how they affect employee productivity. While there is no clear data on how much time is used when employees update or check their blogs from work, data on use of the internet for purposes unrelated to work shows such use increasing dramatically. Billings, D. (2005) Blogs Can Have Adverse Consequences for Employers and Workers, Experts Warn. Bulletin to Management 56(6), 41-42.

Corporate weblogs and sponsored blogs are coming online at a staggering rate. Both companies and individuals are beginning to recognize the value of hiring someone to blog on their web site. Additionally, may bloggers have skills, such as good writing and communication skills, that are in high demand in the workplace. Hire a Blogger! New Recruitment Web Site Highlights Communication, Technological Skills. (2004) Bulletin to Management 55(52), 411.

Blogs can be a very flexible way to communicate daily with clients and customers about product releases and new services. "Many employers have found blogs are extremely useful in getting up-to-date feedback and input from their customers," said Jason Shellen, associate program manager of Blogger, the web log division of Google Inc., referring to interactive blogs. Blogs also may help to forge better working relationships among staff." We began running blogs about six or seven months ago to discuss product development and work out technical problems in software development," said Ben Saitz, senior director of operations, global technical service for DoubleClick Inc. in New York. "We're spread out all over the world, but the blogs have helped us to develop a cohesion among the staff. We have software engineers and programmers in our office in Denver now interacting with our staff in Dublin. Six months ago, they didn't even know [the others] existed, but they now are working together. It's been a very interesting process to watch." Leonard, B. (2003) Blogs Begin to Make Mark on Corporate Communications. HR Magazine, 48(9), 30.

Blogging is revolutionary because companies have usually been more concerned with controlling their message than conversing with customers. Blogging changes that by establishing "a connection through real human beings speaking like real human beings, which is something companies have forgotten how to do," says David Weinberger, the Boston-based co-author of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Microsoft has been one of the biggest evangelists. A year ago, it had about 100 corporate bloggers. Today there are 800. They post pictures of company refrigerators -- there's one that has all Coke and one that has all Pepsi -- and spout off on everything from the death of Boots the cat to renaming Longhorn, Microsoft's long-anticipated new operating system, "Longwait." Indeed, Chairman William H. Gates III is so certain that corporate blogging is the next gold rush in communications that he's practically handing out the pails and shovels by enabling any employee to create a blog within two seconds. Microsoft doesn't train employees in the fine art of blogs, but employees hold meetings to talk about them. The blogs carry disclaimers, but other than that, "our unspoken policy on blogging is: Don't be stupid," says product manager Adam Sohn. Conlin, M. & Park, A. (2004, June 28) Blogging with the Boss’s Blessing. Business Week, 100-101.

Like so many internet activities, from e-mail to e-commerce, web logs, or blogs, shifted rapidly from hypertechnical origins into a mass phenomenon. Once the province of the technically adept, blogs have proliferated rapidly, mutated into a tool for the people, and have been co-opted by mass media. With its passage into popular culture, blogging brings interesting legal questions, particularly regarding speech. Gutman, P.S. (2003) Say What?: Blogging and Employment Law in Conflict. Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 27,145-186, 145.

The dangers of employee blogging are similar to e-mail, only much worse. Bloggers tend to hold nothing back in their efforts to bare their souls to a worldwide audience. If one of your employees blogs, what information might he or she reveal about your company? At least with e-mail, there's a little comfort that its distribution is fairly limited. But blogs are, by definition, both public and freely accessible by anyone with an Internet connection. What can you do about it? For starters, revisit your computer usage policy to make sure it covers blogging. It might also be a good time to make sure your employees are well acquainted with your computer policy as well as other policies that a blogger could be tempted to breach, such as your confidentiality and workplace conduct policies. Epstein, Becker & Green, P.C. (2004, November 11) HR Trends. New York Employment Law Letter, (n.p.).

If a blogger makes a reasonable effort to hide his or her identity, including the use of pseudonyms, blurring of identifying characteristics through hyperbole or understatement, or straight-out prevarication, the employer should step back. An employer should not - and perhaps cannot - investigate further if he stumbles upon the employee's sexual orientation or national origin. Nor can the employer attempt to dig up that material, because the employee will have a reasonable expectation of privacy in those topics and materials. Similarly, if the employer accidentally discovers the identity of a blogger as an employee, he or she should do the utmost to disregard the material. By no means should an employer think it a good idea to dig deeper into the alter ego of a blogger suspected to be an employee. Such investigation would likely be an invasion of privacy for a non-employee, and even though the employee gives up some rights at employment, it is an invasion that ought to be resisted on all fronts. Gutman, P.S. (2003) Say What? Blogging and Employment Law in Conflict. Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 27, 145-186, 179.

As a result of blogging's impact, employers and employees who blog need to reach agreements on the topic either prior to employment or before a blog's creation. One's political views and statements of past, non-interfering personal history should be protected. Topics covered by a nondisclosure agreement or a non-competition clause should be explicitly laid out, as well as what kind of - if any - criticism of co-workers might be allowable. Such topics will not necessarily be subject to pre-employment bargaining, but it is simply in both parties' interest that employers clearly lay out expectations before hiring. Some bargaining may be possible in a limited number of circumstances, but potential employees ought to investigate company policies prior to accepting work if they have any concerns about their own blogging. Once employed, employees must be aware and respect that employers have legitimate general concerns about blogging that do not reflect on their specific circumstances, and that prohibited topics are not meant to stifle opinion. Gutman, P.S. (2003) Say What? Blogging and Employment Law in Conflict. Columbia Journal of Law & the Arts, 27, 145-186, 185.