CRA Inc

11 May 06 @ 10:36 am

Options For Dealing With An Anonymous Employee Blogger

Late last year we had a client forward a link to a blog published by an anonymous employee. The subject of the blog was an organizational change the company was going through, and the employee was using the blog to post his / her observations about the company and change in question.

We were asked for our point of view, which we provided. Several who have seen the response have suggested that it might be of interest to others, and now that some time (and the org change in question) has passed, I’m posting it below. I’ve changed names, organizations, and other details to preserve client confidentiality.

Yes, I’ve been reading it. Here’s our position (an informed one; we have a lot of experience and expertise re: blogs):

* Unless s/he’s breaking a formal code of conduct or ethical guidelines that s/he signed, you can’t force her/him to shut it down. S/he will just start another blog, or tell a peer who will start another blog, and now the conversation will be about how the company really does treat employees poorly (in addition to being against free speech). Same thing if you issue a “no blogging” policy: you could never put fingers in all the holes in the dyke that would spring up.* If s/he is breaking a formal obligation of conduct, the Company has a choice about whether or not to discipline her/him for breach of conduct, and should make that choice knowing that the headline will be “[Company] Fires Employee for Blogging.” Delta, Yahoo, Google and others have done the same (do a Google News search for “fired for blogging”), so while it’s not a flattering headline (especially now), you’re not a trailblazer by any means. It will, however, bring the story into the wider blogosphere, and will explode the level of awareness about his blog to a national (certainly) or global (possibly) level. But you would have the ethical high-ground.

Here’s our counsel:

* First, go read IBM’s blogging guidelines: http://www.snellspace.com/IBM_Blogging_Policy_and_Guidelines.pdf. They are the model to follow.

* If you know who the blogger is, go to her/him with the guidelines and say “Here’s the deal: We respect your right to talk about this. In fact, we think the catharsis is good, and we’re a big enough company to take the criticism (also in part, by the way, because in the long run we really do think this is the best decision for the full body of our employees). But we ask that as you post you respect a code of conduct, and here’s an example from IBM. We also want to make sure you understand the code of conduct and ethics that you’re obligated to as an employee here. We’re going to expect you to live by those, too, and if you cross those lines, we’re going to have to handle the situation as we would for any employee, blog or not. That all being said, we think you have the right to do this, and that if anything it will help us understand where we need to offer more clarity for employees about [the change]. So if this works for you, we’ll be reading, and possibly even responding.”

* If you don’t know who the blogger is, copy that message and have [PR lead] or [Executive] paste it in the comments for the most recent post, as [themselves].

* You could also ignore the blog, but if her/his comments swing more negative, you will have lost much of your ability to frame the conversation that you can achieve now if you approach him with the message above. By engaging her/him around guidelines, s/he’s going to feel more obligated to treat the company fairly.

* A final choice is to engage her/him in the comments, answering some of her/his questions and making your points, but I’d hold off on that for now. Let her/him vent, but take the moral high ground on the blogging issue by taking the position above. It’s likely the best reputation-management move you can make.

Our two cents.

This particular client did not know who the blogger was, and they chose not to engage. Posting became more vitriolic for a time, but eventually, slowed and then stopped.

posted in category(s): Blogs