I came across an article today in Big Sky Business Journal that quotes a survey on the public perceptions of work-related blogs.
In the survey they asked 1,000 adults what they thought of work-related blogging. The main findings are as follows:
- 59 per cent of employees believe employers should be allowed to discipline or terminate workers who post confidential or proprietary information concerning the employer
- 55 per cent think employers should be allowed to discipline or terminate employees who post damaging, embarrassing, negative information about the employer
- 23 per cent support fellow workers being free to post criticism or satire about employers, co-workers, supervisors, customers, or clients without fear of discipline.
The survey also looked at the opinion of employees who worked for companies that had blogging policies. The findings are as follows:
- 62 per cent say the policy prohibits posting any employer-related information
- 60 per cent say the policy discourages employees from criticizing or making negative comments against the employer
- 58 per cent say the regulations deal with all blogging regardless of content.
It seems, unsurprisingly, that the survey pre-supposes that work-related blogs are all about breaching confidentiality, promoting negative images of the business, etc. Work-related blogs can contain these elements, but overt instances are very rare, i.e. view the 100s links on my blogroll to see for yourself.
If the survey commissioners had actually done some research on the nature of work-related blogs (i.e. a good start would be my own discussion paper on work-related blogs) then I'm absolutely sure they'd start with different questions and ultimately get different answers.
See As work-related blogs proliferate few employers are prepared for impact for more details.
In the survey they asked 1,000 adults what they thought of work-related blogging. The main findings are as follows:
- 59 per cent of employees believe employers should be allowed to discipline or terminate workers who post confidential or proprietary information concerning the employer
- 55 per cent think employers should be allowed to discipline or terminate employees who post damaging, embarrassing, negative information about the employer
- 23 per cent support fellow workers being free to post criticism or satire about employers, co-workers, supervisors, customers, or clients without fear of discipline.
The survey also looked at the opinion of employees who worked for companies that had blogging policies. The findings are as follows:
- 62 per cent say the policy prohibits posting any employer-related information
- 60 per cent say the policy discourages employees from criticizing or making negative comments against the employer
- 58 per cent say the regulations deal with all blogging regardless of content.
It seems, unsurprisingly, that the survey pre-supposes that work-related blogs are all about breaching confidentiality, promoting negative images of the business, etc. Work-related blogs can contain these elements, but overt instances are very rare, i.e. view the 100s links on my blogroll to see for yourself.
If the survey commissioners had actually done some research on the nature of work-related blogs (i.e. a good start would be my own discussion paper on work-related blogs) then I'm absolutely sure they'd start with different questions and ultimately get different answers.
See As work-related blogs proliferate few employers are prepared for impact for more details.
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