January 9, 2003
@ 11:58 PM
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Folks at Work and Blogs
I've recently become aware of just how many of the people I work with read my K5 diary. I've had Tim comment about my posts on clubbing, Don thinks I have no inner monologue, Michael asked about a spate of Daddy Dearest entries, Andy told me he checks it daily, Doug has joked about our private conversations ending up online by prefacing certain anecdotes with "This shouldn't end up on your blog" and I've got some good natured ribbing about my posts from Paul. These aren't all the people who've mentioned reading my K5 diary just the ones who have that I could find links to online. Then there are those who probably read it and have never mentioned it to me.

Given that I can count almost ten people who I sit in meetings with ever so often who read my "brain farts posted on the InterWeb" I've noticed that I censor what I write or just plain avoid certain topics. However I've begun to wonder if that is enough and I shouldn't just give up posting online or at least give up the "Carnage4Life" monicker and pick up some generic "cooldude2003" sounding one instead so I can regain some of the pseudo-anonymity of the InterWeb.

This has been at the back of my mind for a bit but was brought to the forefront by reading Chris Anderson's blog. On reading his complaints about people who can't manage their email and meeting etiquette I couldn't help seeing shades of myself and various co-workers in his rants. I read all my email almost immediately but sometimes take days to respond and know coworkers who typically have 1000 - 2000 unread messages at any given time. I also use my laptop in meetings to answer email and finish up articles [speaking of which this month's Extreme XML column is almost due] which probably offends some. I can't help feeling that if one of Chris's coworkers stumbled on his blog they might be abashed even though it is unlikely he is actually singling anyone out. I have tended to avoid talking about work for this reason (I actually made this rule fairly recently for those who've read past entries where I seem to have contravened this rule) especially when I've seen how ugly it can get if rants about projects or teammates spill online. Thankfully the team I work for rocks so there is little chance of this but still...

PS: I should probably have had a poll, something to do with whether your coworkers have ever read your USENET, Slashdot or K5 postings before especially given the rise of employers Googling employees as part of the hiring process.
 

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