Comments on: Google blogger has left the building

Mark Jen's departure comes after less than a month on the job, amid controversy over Web postings about the company.

[Lite Rocker]

Welcome to the business world

No legitimate company would tolerate an employee posting potentially sensitive info. Why does anyone expect Google to be any different.

Good move on Googles behalf, sets precedent.

[sdencar]

Right on.

Free speech has its limits as any 8th grader knows. You can't do just anything you want without reprisal.

Impressing your new employer from day one...

New employee on the job starts a blog and starts posting details about his workplace the very first day?

Most employers have some sort of 'probationary' period to evaluate the employee. Obviously this clown never considered that first impressions count.

At least Google got a chance to see from day one that they had hired someone who could apparently not excercise good judgment. A fine way to make an impression on your new employer ? after your first week describing their well-publicized perks as 'thinly veiled timesavers to keep you at work'.

Amazing they let him stay on as long as they did.

clap, clap clap....

Very good. Nice to see CENCORSHIP alive and well in the good ol' USA.

I'm glad to see that you folks are finally coming around and supporting the corporation?s rights to step on their employees.

Wake UP people. Get with the program! If you don?t start asserting your First Amendment rights, soon YOU WON?T HAVE THEM.

And don?t give me this crap about corporate information that?s sensitive. If someone spills that kind of info, then they should be disciplined. But there is a fine balance there, and I?m afraid that the corporations, with the hearty help of people who?ve been brainwashed in school into ignoring their rights (and responsibilities) as Americans, are turning the USA into an wholly owned subsidiary of the corporations based here.

[brasten]

Freedom of Speech != Freedom from Consequences.

Freedom of speech is a governmental matter, not a private
sector protection. In fact, Mark Jen DID exercise his right to free
speech. And Google has every right to fire him for what he said.
And they did.

You can disagree with what they did from a PR or business
standpoint, but freedom of speech has NOTHING to do with this
situation.

Censorship v.s Company Privacy

Ok, from what I've read about this story, and on his (the employee's) blog. He did miss-step by posting information that was potentially sensitive. But from what the he wrote in his blog a few days before ("google was pretty cool about all this"), it does not seem that a big deal was made at the time, nore that the information posted was all that sensitive (as he was not canned on the spot).

Now, even if what he wrote was sensitive, was there a policy in place about blogging? Was he made aware of it? Was he made aware the the information he heard was sensitive? It's not enough to say "everything you hear here is sensitive". People talk, and Google is NOT the CIA. A simple reprimand in this situation seems to be in order, not a firing or lay-off.

Now, none of us knows the full story ATM, so there could be somthing much more to this.

But IM(not so)HO, a company should not be able to fire/lay-off an employee for what they write in thier blog, unless it specifically and directly breaks an NDA signed by the employee. The US may be a theocracy ATM, but it is not a dictatorship, and freedom of speach is still a right.

[Bill Dautrive]

First amendment doesn't apply.

A corporation is not a government entity, so the first amendment doesn't apply to them.

Most employees are hired, I believe the term is at-will. That means an employers may fire an employee for any reason, other then what is covered by law(ie discrimination laws) and the employee may leave whenever he/she wants.

There doesn't need to be a policy in regards to blogging. If an employee talked to the media about that company and in a disparaging manner, he would be fired. Blogging is no different. If he had not identified himself as a google employee in his blog, things would be different.

Google did the right thing and fired this clown. Just like that moronic flight attendant a few months back, he got what he deserved.