Comments on: Google blogger: 'I was terminated'

Ex-Googler Mark Jen says blog was the cause, adding that the decision came as a "great shock."

[Bill Dautrive]

Why?

Why do stupid people like to proclaim that fact to the world? If you think that blogs are 'new technology' then it shows you are very technical unsavvy and shouldn't be working in the industry. I think you were the only one surprised that you got fired.

Legal grounds for termination....

So I wonder what were the grounds for termination, if any. I know that many companies have a probation period of 90 days where they can let you go for any reason.

Can anyone in HR land speculate?

Answer in story update

Good question. Since California is an at-will employment state, employers have very wide latitude to discipline and terminate workers. An employee who made any sort of critical comment about the company, or disclosed confidential information, would be fair game, according to Littler Mendelson senior counsel Christopher Cobey. More details about this issue are in the updated version of the story above.

[Al Johnsons]

HR land

http://www.analogstereo.com/volvo_s40_v40_owners_manual.htm

[Tex Murphy PI]

This really shouldn't be a "surprise"

Jen was "surprised" that he was terminated, despite the fact that he revised his blog to remove certain references to the company.

What surprises me, is the fact that he was stupid enough to post CONFIDENTIAL information about the company (in the meetings he went to) in such a public manner! Why didn't Jen post the username and password to his account as well?

Of course, it's everyone else's fault that he really didn't use his common sense when he wrote those blogs, so it should be a surprise that he was fired over (let's say this again) LEAKING OUT CONFIDENTIAL CORPORATE INFORMATION!

Let's get real here. There were two reasons why he got fired:
1) Releasing confidential information
2) Lacking the common sense to do reason #1

IMHO, #2 is probably the reason why Google fired him - and I would agree with that.

[penguinista3]

Re: Feel sorry for Jen

I feel sorry for Jen not for him getting fired but for his naivete about the business world.

What a moron...

The guy, Mark Jen, who got fired from Google deserved it. If he thinks otherwise, he's just a moron. He had been with the company for 11 days and thought he was smart enough to comment on how the company is run. Eleven days? You don't even know where all the bathrooms are by the 11th day.

Blogs are cool, but even in the old days if somebody had been hired at a company and started a newspaper column talking about their new company...bad or good comments, they would have been fired. I hope he didn't expect anything different to happen to him.

He should have waited at least a few months and then posted an anonymous blog. At least he had guts to use his real name...but not intelligence.

Robert Gaustad

Blogging is a Form of Expression

Google's decision to fire those indiviuals based on there actions was correct in every fashion.

Today's blog's are mainly filled with the everyday live's of ordinary people. Ordinary people with very obscure views about how things "should" and "should not" be in just about every topic you can imagine.

So with that said. When you start trashing your company because of the way you think things "should" or "should not" be, your creating a discomforting workplace for both you and your employer's.

The easy fix to this is to "keep your trap shut" if you like were you work, yet fell it necessary to trashing your paycheck!

For those that never heard this before, listen, "You don't throw stones if you live in glass house!"

Justin

[Prndll]

Form of expression?

Come on!!!

This is NOT a form of expression. It's the same old thing. There is NOTHING special about blogs, for the only exception people are talking about them. The phrase "incredibly average" comes to mind. What ANY blog is, is the exact same thing as any website on the net. I can goto any blog and view it's html code just as I could any website. The content is also the same. When you have a website, you can setup that site to say anything you want. It doesn't even need to be a website, it could be nothing more than a webpage that you create using the small amount of space given to you by most ISP's (often given to setup your personal start page). By it's very defininition....this post is a blog. This post fits all required criteria to be considered a blog. However, CNET does not label it as such.

[Al Johnsons]

obscure views

http://www.analogstereo.com/volvo_262_264_265_owners_manual.htm

[Ubber geek]

obscure views

http://www.analogstereo.com/subaru_baja_owners_manual.htm

[Walt Connery]

Don't Bite the Hand that Feeds You...;)

Seems always an appropriate consideration in these situations. If you have criticisms of your employer my advice is to keep them in house; better yet, if you are new to the company I'd keep them to myself until I could verify that they aren't merely misconceptions based on your ignorance of exactly how the company functions.

And if things just seem to you to be intolerable then look for and find another job with a company more to your liking--and then go whole hog with your blog about your ex-boss if you choose...;) Freedom of speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of your speech, contrary to some popular opinion. I am constantly amazed by the number of people who think that it does--people who ought to know better. So, think first, act later, is my heartfelt advice.

[A2Panther]

Employers Reach further than you think

This seems similiar to the company's who've fired employees for smoking - Weyco in Michigan, and an employee at Miller Brewing Company for drinking Bud Light at a social event, outside company time.

Some companies seem to have a more outstretched reach on you, after you leave the company grounds.

But, I take it as poor form, for this guy blogging negatively about his new employer after only 11 days of employment. Unemployment is high, and many people don't have opportunities to work, let alone be hired to work for an innovative company such as Google.

[darcydj]

I will try and make it a point to not use Google

I think that its unfair and a company should be exactly what it states it is. So from now on my home page will be either MSN or Altavista whoch should cut down my Google usage at least 95%

[Ubber geek]

Altavista

http://www.analogstereo.com/volvo_owners_manual.htm

[207495111267145837975635436522]

We can now do something about Google/Yahoo screwing us.

After reading more and more nightmare stories about how people are being screwed
by corporate giants Google & Yahoo, I thank god every day that we have a real alternative
search engine now, which is AnooX (www.anoox.com)

Why is AnooX better than mega Wall Street backed corporate giants Google & Yahoo:

1- AnooX search results are Optimized by majority Vote of the people, that is us, rather
than some silicon valley insider schemes, which are Google & Yahoo methods.

2- AnooX shares its Ad revenues with its search users, that is us again.

3- AnooX Ad rates are like 90% less than Google & Yahoo, because AnooX is essentially
a not for profit company.

Mind you AnooX does not have the luxury of Google & Yahoo of being armed with
Billions of dollars, so it currently runs on few servers and thus its search results are
a wee bit slow and it Indexes home pages of web site, so it is good for finding
businesses. But with our support, it will become one of the top Search engines,
for our benefit. After all AnooX is a people driven search engine, for the benefit of
the people, unlike Google & Yahoo which are for the benefit of silicon valley (wall streets)
insiders.

[stephenpace]

No Way

Thanks to your numerous replies in these TalkBalk areas, I tried you so-called 'search engine', AnooX, today and I have to say it returned the worst results I have ever seen for an engine. What you fail to say here is that most voters have a self interest. While Google applies the PageRank algorithm (not perfect, but very effective), your site applies people (which you hope will give honest results above and beyond the failed algorithms you apply initially). Sadly, the people that appear to be voting to 'improve' results on your engine appear to be spammers. Or idiots. Or both.

You've had a year to deliver something good. You and NetDIVE haven't. My recommendation: Pack it in.

[Al Johnsons]

Google & Yahoo

http://www.analogstereo.com/volvo_740_owners_manual.htm

[compossui]

Don't California Statutes Protect You From This?

232.5. No employer may do any of the following:
(a) Require, as a condition of employment, that an employee
refrain from disclosing information about the employer's working
conditions.
(b) Require an employee to sign a waiver or other document that
purports to deny the employee the right to disclose information about
the employer's working conditions.
(c) Discharge, formally discipline, or otherwise discriminate
against an employee who discloses information about the employer's
working conditions.
(d) This section is not intended to permit an employee to disclose
proprietary information, trade secret information, or information
that is otherwise subject to a legal privilege without the consent of
his or her employer.