Police blogger sues The Times

Work-related blogs appear to have been caught up in the recent public enquiry on the newspaper industry, i.e. the illegal hacking into telephones and email accounts by journalists in the UK.

In this instance it is the owner of the NightJack blog - an anonymous work-related blog looking at police work that created a lot of media attention not that long ago.

Two stories on this matter appeared in The Guardian last week:

For police blogger NightJack, it wasn't a fair cop by Patrick Kinglsey.

NightJack blogger to sue the Times for damages by Owen Boycott.

I suppose it's a case of let's wait and see what come of it...

"Negative" work blogging can be good for employers

I've just come across a paper that suggests employee who post negative comments about their employer can lead to positive outcomes.

There is a catch of course in that the ratio of "negative" postings to more positive postings should not generally exceed 15 to 20 per cent.

For more information about this paper - Blog, Blogger, and the Firm: Can Negative Posts by Employees Lead to Positive Outcomes? by Rohit Aggarwal - click here.

Work blog helps tsunami survivors

An article in today's Guardian (see G2 section) looks at a blog kept by a Japanese nurse in the aftermath of the recent tsunami.

A quick snippet from the article:

...Painstakingly tapped into the nurse's mobile phone at the end of exhausting days touring evacuation zones and hospitals, the blog chronicles eight days that begin with trepidation and end with a reluctant return to Tokyo.

In between, there are moments of despair and optimism, even humour.

And floods of tears...

For more details see 'Do not cry': a nurse's blog brings comfort to Japan's tsunami survivors by Justin McCurry.

The law of work blogging

I just came across a blog article about work-related blogs that comes via the Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal.

It's called "Blog Wars: Employer Controls and Employee Rights Regarding Personal Blogging".

It's written by Kyle Mitchell.

The article is based on USA labour law but worth a look whatever the case may be.

To view it click HERE.

More work-related blog research...

For the second month in succession is a new research article on work-related blogs.

It's by Abigail Schoneboom again.

The title of the article is Workblogging in a Facebook age.

The abstract is as follows:

In keeping with this journal’s recent attempt to revive worker narratives as a means of understanding social questions, this research note reflects on the significance of workblogging as a window on the labour process.

The article reflects on the impact of emerging social networking tools such as Facebook, as well as factors such as increased surveillance and blog searchability, on how and where workplace stories are told.

It assesses some of the problems of conducting research in a rapidly changing blogosphere and argues that researchers must sustain trusting relationships with bloggers, as well as staying abreast of emerging social networking practices, in order not to lose sight of these important recalcitrant voices.

For more details of the said article click here.

New work-related blog research

A new research article by Abigail Schoneboom on work-related blogs has just come out.

It has been published in the New Technology, Work and Employment journal.

It is entitled: Sleeping giants? Fired workbloggers and labour organisation.

The abstract reads as follows:

This paper argues that the Waterstone's fired blogger incident performed a labour organising function in terms of garnering pro-labour media attention and encouraging critical discourse.

Looking at the blog's distinctive features and evolution, it evaluates the strengths, limitations and potential for recurrence of similar high-profile incidents.

For more details click here.

Social worker blog

I've not put any new work-related blogs on my blog for some time.

However, my eye was caught by the reference to a work-related blog via a brief mention in today's Guardian - click here.

The work-related blog is called Fighting Monsters: The Life and Thoughts of a British Social Worker.

Work-related blogs in the FT

I've just come across an article that is about work-related/employee blogs in the Financial Times.

There is some confusion between blogs encouraged by employers that don't work out as planned and blogs that are started independently by employees, on their own time and using their own resources, that also end up in the headlines.

It doesn't tell us anything new, but it's nice to know that employe blogging activities continue to grab the attention of the media.

For more details see Cyber musings on the office are a risky strategy by Rhymer Rigby.

New work blogc-Going Public

Every now and then I get asked to plug a new work-related blog and I'm always willing to help out.

The work blog is called Going Public.

Details of the blog:

I'm currently in my fifth year of working in a busy local authourity adult services department.

I have a degree in sociology behind me and a tendancy to talk , much to my colleagues despair, far too much about social policy and the politics of the welfare state.

This blog is an attempt to take the pressure off of them.

Please feel free to contribute your own views and opinions.

Work blog research

I finally managed to get something formally published from my research on work blogs.

It is based on an on-line questionnaire that I distributed through the Internet around 2 or so years ago.

It's called - 'Because I need somewhere to vent': the expression of conflict through work blogs.

It's published courtesy of the New Technology, Work and Employment journal.

The abstract reads:

Employee resistance has traditionally been analysed as an activity that occurs in the work organisation.

In recent years, new Internet communication technologies, such as blogs, have expanded the possibilities for employees to express conflict.

This paper explores how these developments can add to our understandings of employee resistance to the labour process.

I'll be posting an earlier draft of my paper on my blog very soon.

If Web 2.0 and work is a subject that interests you then please complete the following on-line questionnaire and pass on the Web address to friends and colleagues, etc.

New research paper on work-related blogs

It's literally just off the press.

The title is: Unmediated workplace images from the Internet: An investigation of work blogging

A summary of the paper is:

The paper addresses the deficit in our understandings of the growing phenomenon of work blogging.

Work blogging is investigated in the context of developing Internet communication technologies, almost blanket use of the Internet by the youngest cohort of workers, and changing Internet application.

The approach involves content analysis of postings taken from a sample of 744 work-related blogs and qualitative questionnaire data from 204 work bloggers.

The findings support the many views taken of work blogging put forward by media reporters and the scatterings of blog-related research currently available.

The findings also explore self-reports of work bloggers, which conflict to an extent with how work-related blogs are viewed by other interested parties.

The paper dwells on the future of work with a call for wider research to investigate whether rapidly developing and easy to apply Internet communication technologies can augment human powers of organization and integration.

You can download it here.

My presentation slides can be found here.

Some work-related blog statistics

Two years ago I sent out a questionnaire to about 500 people who blogged about their work.

I got back just over 200.

For a number of reasons I've sat on the data for nearly 18 months.

So, for those who may find it interesting to know why some people have chosen work as the theme of their blog, what motivated them to start blogging about work, what motivates them to continue blogging about work, and, who tends to be the audience for work-related blogs, here goes...

Figure one: Why do you blog specifically about work?



Figure two: What motivated you to start blogging?



Figure three: What motivates you to continue blogging about your work?



Figure four: Who reads your blog?

I should have a full working paper that discusses these findings available some time next week.

It discusses work blogging as a single phenomenon and then against a wider trend in Internet application.

Work-related blogs as creative resistance

Work-related blogs get quite a bit of attention in the popular media and last year saw three (that I know of) turned in to books.

Last week while Googling around for any further reports or mention of "work-related blogs", "employee blogs", "job blogs", "workblogging", etc. I came across an interesting piece of work on this very matter by Abigail Schoneboom.

The working paper is called Diary of a Working Boy: Creative Resistance Among Anonymous Workbloggers and can be downloaded here.

It's particularly ironic for myself as I'm just about in the final stages of finishing my second working paper (really a better version of the first!) on work-related blogs, for a conference in Amsterdam next month - a paper that I will put on-line after I've presented it.

A quick summary of the study follows:

...the study aims to understand the intersection between workblogging, creative writing, and social change, capturing the appeal of humdrum office jobs to aspiring writers and activists who pursue their emancipation clandestinely within the organisation.

I particularly like a further line from the abstract:

In an era where employers increasingly seek to improve worker productivity by nurturing a strong organisational culture based on informal bonds and self-management, workbloggers use their writing to buffer themselves against the company’s attempt to secure their hearts and minds, making fun of management gurus and celebrating ways to reclaim time while appearing to be hard at work.

Well worth a read!

Work blogger in trouble

A newly appointed manager of a chocolate shop had to flee his job after branding the town a "s***-hole" online.

Steve Beall was moved from his home town in the North East to run the new Cafe Thorntons in the shipbuilding town of Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria, two weeks ago.

But he kept a blog branding his new home "rough and boring".

For more details see, for example, Blog lands sweetshop boss in hot water (Manchester Evening News).

There's also a brief television report on the Barrow blogger to be found on the BBC News website.

Managing work bloggers

HZ Zone is the latest personnel practitioner orientated website to look at work-related blogs. Not surprisingly the emphasis is on the management of people who blog about their work, as a quote from the article suggests:

Allowing employees to write an online diary may seem like a good idea, but don't be fooled. Certainly there are potential business advantages - the employer appears progressive and can publicise its corporate image to a global market within seconds – yet without strict monitoring your staff may be sharing company secrets and making libellous statements to a huge audience. The growing number of cases in which a worker has been fired for publishing inappropriate comments about their employer clearly shows that businesses are feeling the threat of bloggers that are prepared to say too much.

Consult the article (may require registration) - Protecting your business from bloggers (Sarah Fletcher) - if you want some insights on how to manage people who blog about work and what this recent trend may develop into in the future.

Cosmopolitan also has a handy article on work-related blogs this month (December). Except the emphasis is on how such blogs could be a 'guide to your dream job".

Blogging about work and social isolation

For those who are interested in the phenomenon of work-related blogs, there is a new research paper available to download.

The paper is entitled 'Social Isolation and American Workers: Employee Blogging and Legal Reform' and is written by Rafael Gely and Leonard Bierman.

The abstract reads as follows:

This Article examines the increasing “social isolation” of American workers and the role the Internet, particularly employee “blogging,” can potentially play in ameliorating this situation.

It builds on a path-breaking June 2006 empirical study in the American Sociological Review documenting said social isolation, and on Harvard political scientist Robert D. Putnam's classic
theoretical work developing a similar theme.

The Article argues that off-duty blogging by employees can play an important role in helping reverse this decline in social isolation, but that current legal structures impede this
goal.

This Article then proposes various reforms to address this situation. We begin Part I by examining the general role employee blogging might have as an antidote for the increasing social isolation facing American workers.

Part II then presents a review of blogs and the blogging phenomenon.

Part III follows with a discussion of blogs in the context of the recent afore-mentioned scholarship in the American Sociological Review and Professor Putnam's classic work.

Part IV more specifically analyzes the role blogs play in the employment context, and Part V examines the protections afforded employee bloggers under the National Labor Relations Act.

Part VI then looks at this issue in the context of both state common and statutory law.

In Parts VII and VIII we evaluate various options for legal reform in the area. Part IX concludes the article.

The paper clearly takes a perspective that I've not really considered as of yet (i.e. law), yet it has several parallels with my own preliminary research (see figure 2).

You can download the paper here.

600 work-related blogs

I can hardly find the time to read even a few of the blogs on my blogroll.

When I did yesterday I was a bit dismayed to see that Call Center Purgatory was no more.

Sensing, like I have done a few times before, that work-related blogs are losing their appeal I browsed a few more.

However, in about five minutes flat I came across some really good blogs. So, here are another eight for the blogroll.

A supermarket folly - an anonymous cog on a very small wheel in the gigantic machine that is the UK retail sector.

Confessions of a retail queen - manager divulging stories

It's your time you're wasting, not mine - teacher in the UK education system

Learn me good - a 3rd grade math teacher

Life on a roll of film - about the working life of a supermarket photo lab employee who likes to complain

Mr. Chalk - The horrors of the inner City comprehensive - read and weep

Pizza Hut team member - humour and facts about the inside of a fast food restaurant!

Redkudu - I'm an English teacher. I don't get angry. I just document.