What is work-related blogs and news about?

I fully admit that this has been written five months after I began blogging (I have dated it April 2005 so that it does not come out as my latest blog, although it probably will do if anyone has me on their RSS feed). It’s not as if I’ve had anyone emailing me or leaving messages asking me what I’m really trying to achieve with my blog, but I felt an urge to summarise what I intend to achieve through using what I believe to be a very interesting and addictive form of communication.

To me, there are three clear aims to my blog. My three main reasons to blog, based on post-hoc rationalisation, are as follows:

1) Blogs relates to my research interests
Around a year or so I began to hear of stories of bloggers who had either been fired for blogging about their work, e.g. Queen of the Sky and the bloke who publishes the Woollamaloo Gazette, or, had evaded such punishment, yet generated a great deal of (negative?) publicity for their employer, e.g. Less Reasons to Shop at Morrisons. It was here were I came across Tom Reynold’s Random Acts of Reality and AnyTown NHS Trust – both of which where regularly mentioned and given warm reviews in The Guardian newspaper.

I was and still am in the process of finishing my PhD on workplace misbehaviour and blooging about work seemed to offer a perspective I had never considered before. I looked up these blogs, bookmarked them, and before I knew it a list of five quickly grew to around 20 or so thanks to someone who directing me to the Anonymous Work Blogs ring. As of September 2005 I have about 430 on my blogroll and I expect it to carry on growing.

I haven’t actually integrated work-related blogs into my thesis, but I have mentioned that most employers would almost certainly class blogging about work without their permission as a form of mischief. Some, no doubt, would probably not care too much, but a minority may classify it as much worse than mischief.

2) Work-related blogs need to be researched
Currently very little has been written about work-related blogs, although a recent example includes Talking From the Inside Out by Edelman and Intelliseek. Academically, work-related blogs are a truly barren area and there is no reason to suggest that work-related blogs are simply about mischief. However, where exactly do you start researching such a new phenomenon? What is more, how should someone with relatively little experience of research begin such a project, especially as I should be concentrating on my thesis?!

As I am busy with my thesis until the summer of 2006 I decided that the best approach would be to gather as much data and information I can before applying for a research grant, etc. My blog essentially is where I keep my resources on blogs – whether they are links to blogs themselves, or, just links to articles I have come across in the press, etc.

I have also set up an on-line questionnaire to try and gauge what work-related blogs are about. There are ten questions designed to get a preliminary picture of what the work-related blogging phenomenon may be about. Incidentally, I didn’t think for a moment that work-related blogs were about one thing – sounding off about work. The data from about 190 returned questionnaire confirms I was correct, but the data has also opened my eyes to things I couldn’t possibly have imagined, nor could I have got such insights from reading every relevant blog I came across. Stay tuned for my research findings!

It’s also a resource for anyone else interested in researching work-related blogs, whether they are academics, HR or management practitioners, journalists, etc. or just bloggers wanting to know more about the phenomenon for themselves. However, if you do use it then please acknowledge me in some way!

3) A good source of work-related news
Part of my job requires that I stay up-to-date with issues related to work – so why not use the blog to store links to articles that interest me and could be used for teaching purposes – see my three teaching blogs: Employment Relations, Employee Resourcing, and, People Management. It also saves printing them out and photocopying. However, I also post links to work-related news for a number of reasons.

Firstly, this may be naïve of me, but when I started the blog I thought that people who blogged about their work may be interested in work-related news. I have reason to believe this is true, but I can’t confirm it for sure, i.e. the statistics and a few comments only tell me so much.

Secondly, I’d like to make a contribution of my own to the blogosphere in that I may not blog about my own work, but I can blog about something that really interests me. Hopefully, the audience for my blog appreciates work-related news, but again, I have no way of knowing if this is the case bar the odd welcome comment from time-to-time. Thanks to all that have taken part so far – much appreciated!

Thirdly, I want my blog to be read on a regular basis. So, blogging regularly about work-related stuff and blogging is my ‘hook’.

Fourthly, I wasn’t aware of this at the start, but I’ve yet to find a blog like mine, certainly from the UK. I know LabourStart have an excellent resource on work-related issues, but they are mainly related to trade unionism and industrial relations. I want to blog about work-related issues that cover the trivia as much as the stories that report on major changes in the world of work. Please let me know if you are aware of a similar resource and I will gladly retract my claims!

Lastly, I want my blog to be educational – in the loosest sense! I’ve long since had the belief that work-related news does not get the attention it deserves. I’m not laying claim to a conspiracy against such news, but work-related issues are far too important to be relegated to a relatively low-level status, i.e. it needs a freely available and dedicated outlet as well as forming a part of everyday news. Work-related news isn’t sexy, but trust me, it is a subject you can get into if you make the effort. I also believe that being savvy about workplace issues is the key to making the most from work, in whatever capacity that may be.


In brief, I believe that my blog serves a number of purposes, but the overall purpose falls in line with the what I sense is the true nature of blogging – a collective and non-profit medium for sharing valuable and objective information that may or may not be freely available elsewhere.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog and feel free to offer comments on any of the above, or anything else that come to mind.

James Richards (23 September, 2005)

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey James,

I agree with you and support your efforts. More work/research should be done on work related blogs.

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you're writing this. Work is such a big part of our lives and the way we think about it and deal with it is always fascinating.

Here is another web site and kind of a blog about work and jobs. It's tagged as "independent career advice for the indenpendent minded".

http://www.careerorama.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=3

lj said...

Hi,
Can I add my blog to your lists?
aworkinglife.blogspot.com
it's the unedited versions of my Guardian Money blog.
It's about everything and anything about your working life.
Thanks.
LJ

Anonymous said...

I'm curious about whistle-blower blogs. I have a one page website:
http://www.danvillenewsnow.com-a.googlepages.com/ but think I will blog it now. My publisher is threatening to charge me with a federal crime for my legal posting of my writing clips to my personal web site. He's full of crap. But you can see that by the way they run the news room....Anyone know of a whistle blowing blog?

Neil80 said...

Can I take this opportunity to plug my blog: Going Public... a view of Social Care and Local Government from the inside.

http://goingpublicsector.blogspot.com/

order singulair online said...

You have a very good blog that the main thing a lot of interesting and useful!

Unknown said...

Jobs In India is a portal wherein Job Seekers can find all Latest Jobs in India easily which mach to their profile. Recent Job Opening in India and helps to apply with the relevant jobs which suits to their profile. Jobs In India does not charge any commission from the candidate neither from recruiters. The vision to start Jobs In India is to meet candidate with the right choice.

resume tips said...

this is very good blog and i supported when peoples are searching jobs they preparing resumes of different kinds build this blog.

how to work online at home said...

Great post thanks.

Hems Jacson said...

Thanks for displaying up such fabulous data. I have bookmarked you and will stay in line with your new mails. I like this posted letters, hold creating and give informative post...!
by MKT 571 Individual Assignment | LDR 531 Individual Assignment Provider

Dave said...

Hi James, are you able to remove the comment on the page

http://workblogging.blogspot.co.uk/2010/05/internet-misbehaviour-and-lost.html

from someone called IT-SUPPORT-BRISTOL

It links to us - and we would like it removed please.

Cheers

periyannan said...

The article is very interesting. Thanks for sharing this article. I enjoyed reading your article.
artificial intelligence internship | best final year projects for cse | internship certificate online | internship for mba finance students | internship meaning in tamil