Business

Blog-bashed bosses laying down the law

Greg Brown has kept an online diary of his daily life for two years, opening a window into his world for anybody who has an interest. In his Web log, or blog, he writes of his travels, gadgets and just about anything else that comes to mind - high gas prices and water-free urinals are among recent posts. But you won't find much about the place where he spends much of his time. Brown, 35, who is hired by companies as a contractor to help with computer needs, doesn't mention his employers by name on the blog. He will at times write of things job-related, but at his most descriptive he refers to his employer as a "huge company." "There are things I'd like to talk about," said Brown, of Wake Forest, N.C. "I don't take the risk. It's an employers' market. I would hate to lose my job over something like that." Blogs have given a louder voice to employees, taking their observations about the workplace or gripes about the boss out of the break room and into the world. That has posed a new threat for companies, which spend big bucks building and protecting their reputations. Many now are struggling with policies and procedures to ensure that what workers say online in their free time doesn't hurt the bottom lines. Some, including Google and Delta Air Lines, have gone so far as to fire employees for Internet posts. By some estimates, dozens of workers across the country have been terminated for spouting off about their employers on the Internet. "Enough people have gotten fired now that people are thinking, 'The blog is not the right place for me to gossip,'" said Annalee Newitz, policy analyst with the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco, which works to protect rights online. "It's a learning curve." The word "blog" was coined in 1999, according to ComScore Networks, which tracks online activity. But the practice of blogging didn't get much attention until the 2004 election, when bloggers became a force in politics. Since then, their appeal has grown, though blogs generally remain in the realm of the young and tech-savvy. As of July, more than 14.2 million blogs existed, according to Technorati, a California company that follows the trend. A new blog is created almost every second. And they're attracting readers. During the first three months of the year, 50 million U.S. Internet users visited a blog, according to ComScore. That is about 30 percent of those who are online. "There's a lot of interest, a lot of buzz," said Mike Tindal, director of corporate communications at Cary, N.C.-based SAS, the world's largest private software developer. There's also a lot for companies to worry about. With more than 80,000 new blogs coming online each day, chances increase that someone will say something about an employer. Businesses fear that workers will disclose secret information about products or strategies or simply bash their bosses or corporate decisions. "They're struggling with, 'should we have a policy about this?'" Newitz said. SAS, for example, is weighing guidelines for employees who blog. An internal group, made up of communications personnel, human resources representatives and lawyers, has been working through the specifics, and the company is about a month away from having the guidelines, Tindal said. IBM is one company SAS has looked to as it has contemplated standards. In mid-May, the computer company released a policy developed by employees who blog. It has 11 points, including an instruction that employees identify their roles at the company and say explicitly that their views do not necessarily represent those of IBM. Bloggers also are told not to pick fights or use obscenity. Sam Ruby, a Raleigh, N.C., programmer who has worked with IBM for almost a quarter-century, was among the employees who contributed to the guidelines. "Mostly what I wanted to accomplish was to give the people who felt like they needed approval, the permission that this is something IBM is interested in," he said. Ruby has been blogging since January 2002, mostly about technical minutiae. He posts daily and can have tens of thousands of readers worldwide in a week. Blogging is more than a pastime, he said. Using the forum to bounce ideas off experts at other companies has helped him in his IBM job. "Probably more times than I care to recount," he said. Ruby is careful, though, not to disclose anything proprietary to IBM. Internet posts can last much longer than their authors intend. Even if a blogger erases an entry or takes down a site, posts can still be found. They can be archived in search engines, for example, and show up with a search. Brown has given thought to that permanence and has considered ending his blog. "Sometimes I think, 'What is the point of my blog?' It's just my incoherent rantings most of the time. Is that something I want out there?"