Blogging at Work, Blogging about Work
I work at home now and, while I get some direction from my partner in life and work, I am pretty much on my own as far as time management. I think that there has to be some firm policies about non-work related internet activities for any company that is dependant on having a productive human resource. In a perfect World, people should be managed in such a way that they are given a reasonable work load and regular progress checks. Some people actually work better when they can have relatively frequent distractions. I know that blogging and work sometimes does not mix well. I have a 2-3 hour task that I do 6 days per week. If I try to work on blog entries or social activities related to the Blogosphere in the morning, I can drag this task out until the late afternoon. It is ideally supposed to be finished before noon my time because it involves updates for a site for which people have paid subscriptions. Blogging at work should be OK for some people, but you have to be realistic about time management. You should also be aware of what your employers expectations are with regard to internet usage during company time. If you are working somewhere that does not have a firm policy, you should go check out the policies of other companies. Find one that you think is reasonable and have it stored somewhere so you can suggest it if the subject comes up. A former employer of mine operated on the trust model until something that I never heard the particulars of made the employer decide to draft a policy that included a strict no MSN Messenger policy. That was inconvenient. You should be aware that employers could put keystroke loggers on company equipment. There are even keystroke loggers that are external devices.
As far as blogging about work goes, I suggest that if you are an employee you should completely avoid blogging about work. Just don’t do it. You might notice that I don’t have my face plastered all over this blog. I could lull myself into thinking that I was anonymous but I would be fooling myself. If you blog in a conversational style, using anecdotes and bits and pieces of your personal experience, you will gradualy reveal more and more of who you are. I have recently abandoned anonymity on another blog and I am fairly pleased with the reception that I am getting from other bloggers who put their names and faces on their blogs. If my blog was unknown to friends and coworkers I would have less self editing to do. Sometimes I get my wife to do my self-editing for me. Sometimes things get published and then self edited shortly afterwards.
