Co-authored by Tate Stickles
Last time I addressed some of the general risks you face as a blogger. Today I'm going to address some of the risks associated with blogging relating to your job. However, we're not going to address blogging on the job. That will be the focus of the next article in this series.
Unless you're really lucky, you probably won't make a living with your blog, so you need to be careful and take steps to ensure that your personal blog does not interfere with your job. Unless you're blogging as part of your job (where the risks discussed in the next article will apply), you need to use some common sense and keep your job and personal blogging separate.
While blog related firings are rare, the Internet is full of stories on bloggers losing their jobs due to their blogs. Assume your employer is reading your blog. Even if you're writing under a pseudonym or using some tech tricks to hide your identity, you should assume that you're not anonymous.
Your employer has a legitimate interest in protecting its business interests, intellectual property, and reputation. They're reporting to board of directors, stockholders, and the government. They have to protect their profits, and maintain secrets.
Your company also faces potential liability from your blog even if you're running a personal blog on your own time. Moreover, you're just one employee. Consider how many other people at your company are blogging. Think about the potential nightmare your employer faces in trying to control their employee's blogging activities, especially when most of this personal blogging is taking place during the employee's own time away from the office.
You need to take an active role to ensure that your blog doesn't violate company policies or your contract with your employer. Check your employment handbook and employment contract to review your employer's policy on blogging. If your employer has a blogging policy (unfortunately few companies do), the policy may prohibit you from blogging at all, blogging on company time, or have some other restrictions and potential disciplinary actions outlined.
If your employment contract or handbook do not specifically address blogging, review your company's policies relating to email and Internet use policies. Odds are that your employer's view of blogging is going to be similar to their restrictions on your ability to use company email and the Internet, and re-reading those policies can provide you with some guidance on how your employer may view your blog. As a general rule, don't blog on company time or use company resources.
The best (but most uncomfortable) step is talking to your boss or other members of management about your blog. Tell them what you're going to do, how your blog may or may not touch on work related issues, and get their approval. If they reject the idea, discuss what they would be comfortable in allowing. Talk to them, you might be surprised by their answers. If they do say "no," you always have the option of finding another job with an employer who supports your blogging activities.
If they're hesitant, you might offer to put a disclaimer on your blog stating the views expressed on the blog are yours alone, and not those of your employer. If you go the disclaimer route, I'd urge you to seek legal counsel on the drafting to ensure the disclaimer is drafted correctly.
With or without your employer's approval, be careful with your blog's content. Don't use your company's trademarks and copyrights without permission. They've gone to considerable time and expense in creating and protecting their intellectual property and are unlikely to allow you to use the intellectual property on your personal blog.
NEVER discuss your company's trade secrets and other inside information in your blog. I can't stress this point enough. There is no surer way to get yourself into trouble than to violate this rule. If there's one way to wave the red flag in front of your employer and get the full attention of legal and HR, this is it.
I would take the idea of editing yourself a step further and never criticize your company, co-workers, supervisors, workplace, customers, competitors, or otherwise talking about anything remotely connected to your company. What you view as a therapeutic posting of a rant about a bad customer or bad boss could be viewed by your employer as defamatory, abusive, or harassing.
Even if your content is unrelated to your job, you still run the risk of offending your employer. We've seen examples of employees fired for "inappropriate" blog content, and in such cases it's the employer who decides what is inappropriate.
Don't think big brother isn't reading your blog. Savvy companies are monitoring their employee's personal websites, blogs, and anything else that may reflect poorly on the company. If you blog at work on company time, it really is not that difficult for your company's IT department to figure out what you're doing. If you blog at home on your own time, you should assume that your company has somehow heard about or stumbled across your blog and is monitoring your posts.
As mentioned before, we've already seen companies fire employees over blog content. With a few exceptions, your employer can generally fire you for any reason including what you post on your blog. While firing you is the extreme response, and other forms of discipline may be more likely for a first time offense, you need to be aware of potential consequences. In most states, private employers can discipline or fire you for what you do on your own time unrelated to your job.
Don't be confused and think your blog is protected by the First Amendment. Odds are your employer is a private company, and the First Amendment doesn't apply to them. The Constitution only restricts the government, not your employer.
If you really get into blogging and are kicking around the idea of turning it into a business, then there are other things to consider. Check your employment contract and handbook again to review your company's policy about running your own business or devoting time to other activities. Most companies want your job to take up most of your time and effort.
You should consider setting up your own business and an appropriate entity to own your blog so that you can minimize your liability. Running your blog as a small business can get you out of the rat race, but keep in mind that running your blog as a business does create a whole new set of issues you need to deal with as a business owner.
In the first two articles in this series on blogging I've tried to give you a quick view of some of the legal concerns relating to your personal blog. Next time I'll address the risks associated with corporate blogging.