Can You Be Fired From Your Job Over On-Line Comments?
I was reading an interesting blog post, titled “You Can Lose Your Job Over Blog Comments, Too” by a well-known author, Daniel Scocco, who writes about blogging on his DailyBloggingTips.com site. Below is partial reprint of the article:
In the past we have seen people losing their jobs for bad mouthing their companies on Twitter and on blog posts. It turns out that the same can happen with blog comments, even if you are not the one writing the comments!
Confusing? Well, here is what happened. Around one month ago Skype hired Madhu Yarlagadda, a former Yahoo! employee, to be the new Chief Development Officer. Once the news got out, TechCrunch wrote a post reporting the news.
Once the post was a live a bunch of people started leaving comments criticizing and openly insulting Madhu Yarlagadda. These were presumably people who had worked with or for him in the past, and they were claiming he was “dishonest,” “political” and things like that. You’ll still find some of the comments on the post, but the heaviest ones were deleted by TechCrunch, since Madhu threatened to take legal action.
Long story short, the thing blew out of proportions, and as the NY Times reported today, “the comments caught the attention of Skype executives who became concerned about their new hire, according to a person with knowledge of the situation.”
The result? Madhu left the company just one month after joining.
The takeaway message? I am guessing there are many. For one, people are reading blogs, including the comments! Another one would be: be careful with what you put on the Internet.
Here are my comments on this blog post:
As an executive recruiter, I don’t see a lot of this public bashing going on (yet). I do perceive that the increasing ability for individuals to communicate through social media will increase “haters” comments. However, most people will only post “hater” comments when they’ve been mistreated, abused, and wronged.
Imagine all those employees out there who’ve been mistreated, abused, wronged, stomped on, screwed over, back-stabbed, lied to, and humiliated by former bosses. Imagine the ability of these folks to go on-line and vent – just like in this case.
I’m a firm believer of “what goes around – comes around”. You mistreat people – it will come back to bite you.
Here’s a good example: I’m a high school basketball coach. Our former varsity coach left to go to another school. Before he left, he gave an “unfavorable” comment in a published interview about our parents, administration, and players. Some of our parents and players also felt he had wronged them over time.
When the local paper published their announcement of his new position, parents commented on the on-line version of the article – it was a nasty, drag through the mud, public dogfight. The varsity coach almost lost his new job. At a minimum, he goes into this new job with a huge cloud over his head and is now under the microscope from parents, school administration, and players. His reputation is damaged and those “comments” are indexed forever on-line. Probably not the way anyone would like to start a new job.
Moral of the story – be careful how you treat others. “What goes around – truly does come around.” And with the rising trend of people engaging in social media, including blog reading, you run the danger of having your “mistakes” come back and bite you – or at the very least – haunt you!
Are you at risk in your job search of negative comments and information following you around?
Is your reputation being damaged without your knowledge?
Have you done something to encourage people to post angry and negative comments about yourself?
Did you know that more and more employers are checking out your on-line reputation before hiring you?
When was the last time you conducted a check-up on your on-line reputation for your job search?
Barry
Tags: Career Mistakes, job search information, job search knowledge, job search plan, Job Search Preparation, Job Search Social Media, Online Profiles, Personal Branding, Personal Branding Mistakes, Personal Branding Techniques
Job Search Mistakes, Job Search Preparation, On-line Social Networking, Personal Branding | Barry Deutsch August 19, 2010
About the Author
Barry Deutsch is a founding Partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions, co-author of "You're NOT the Person I Hired", and "This is NOT the Position I Accepted". Barry is an award-winning international speaker, retained executive recruiter, and expert on hiring and retaining top talent, and executive job search.
