There was an article in The Guardian today about an award winning police blog.
The blog is called Mental Health Cop.
The award is by Mind (mental health charity).
For more details of the story see Beyond the call of duty (Mary O'Hara).
Showing posts with label Work blogging. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Work blogging. Show all posts
Fired for blogging about new job
Just heard of a story from the USA where someone who had just got a new job had the offer rescinded after posting details of the offer on his blog.
For more details see: Would you sack someone for blogging about your job offer? (HR Zone).
You may need to register with HR Zone to access this article.
Japanese work blogger in trouble
According to the BBC News website a Japanese air traffic controller has been questioned after apparently blogging about the flight plans of the US president's plane, Air Force One.
The unnamed controller, who works at Tokyo International Airport, faces possible charges or disciplinary action.
For more details see Japan air controller 'blogged Air Force One flight plans'.
The unnamed controller, who works at Tokyo International Airport, faces possible charges or disciplinary action.
For more details see Japan air controller 'blogged Air Force One flight plans'.
Work blogger wins Orwell Prize for best blog
According to an article in The Guardian yesterday, a blog written by a social worker - Winston Smith: Working with the underclass - has won a prestigious blog award.
The blog is written by an anonymous male who tells tales of his experiences as a care home worker.
He also details the failings of senior managers and some of seemingly absurd policies and practices put in place by the social services, and criticises "a systems that is useless and ineffective."
See Orwell Prize goes to blogger who writes about 'working with the underclass' by James Robinson for more details.
The blog is written by an anonymous male who tells tales of his experiences as a care home worker.
He also details the failings of senior managers and some of seemingly absurd policies and practices put in place by the social services, and criticises "a systems that is useless and ineffective."
See Orwell Prize goes to blogger who writes about 'working with the underclass' by James Robinson for more details.
Work blogger column in The Guardian
According to today's Guardian (G2 section):
Dr Crippen is the pseudonym for a long-serving GP.
Every week he will bring us a first-hand account of what's really happening in the NHS.
Click here to see his first first-hand account based on the BMA and banning alcohol advertising.
Dr Crippen is the pseudonym for a long-serving GP.
Every week he will bring us a first-hand account of what's really happening in the NHS.
Click here to see his first first-hand account based on the BMA and banning alcohol advertising.
New work blog paper
Next week I'll be attending the 6th Critical Management Studies Conference at the University of Warwick presenting what will probably be my last paper on work blogging.
The paper is about employee cynicism and how such behaviour is a feature of most work blogs (in varying degrees of course).
However, the paper goes beyond equating work blogs with cynicism and suggests that, in contrast to most academic views of employee cynicism, being cynical through work blogs leads, in most cases, to positive outcomes for the employee.
In other words, the paper explores what cynicism becomes over time.
For more details of the conference click here.
For more details of the paper on the title of the paper: Re-visiting employee cynicism On decentrement of the subject via work blogging.
The paper is about employee cynicism and how such behaviour is a feature of most work blogs (in varying degrees of course).
However, the paper goes beyond equating work blogs with cynicism and suggests that, in contrast to most academic views of employee cynicism, being cynical through work blogs leads, in most cases, to positive outcomes for the employee.
In other words, the paper explores what cynicism becomes over time.
For more details of the conference click here.
For more details of the paper on the title of the paper: Re-visiting employee cynicism On decentrement of the subject via work blogging.
Random acts on the radio
Last night, as per usual, I was listening to BBC Five Live in bed.
At around 11 p.m. it was announced that Tom Reynolds of Random Acts of Reality would be in the studio.
If you want to listen to what Tom had to say about the nature of his work blog (and promote his new book) then follow this ''listen again' link.
Click on Tuesday and he's on at about one hour and 15-30 minutes into the show
You should have until about 30 June to listen again.
At around 11 p.m. it was announced that Tom Reynolds of Random Acts of Reality would be in the studio.
If you want to listen to what Tom had to say about the nature of his work blog (and promote his new book) then follow this ''listen again' link.
Click on Tuesday and he's on at about one hour and 15-30 minutes into the show
You should have until about 30 June to listen again.
Work blogger "disciplined" by employer
Only just heard about this particular work blogger - Night Jack (police officer).
Apparently, The Times has named the police officer who keeps the blog - not the first time this paper has outed a high-profile blogger!
Some details...
A serving detective whose anonymous blog carried criticisms of government ministers and police bureaucracy has been disciplined by his force.
The action, by Lancashire Constabulary, follows the exposure of the blogger "Night Jack" by the Times newspaper.
He was unmasked after the High Court rejected his plea that his anonymity be preserved "in the public interest".
Lancashire Constabulary said the blogger, named as Det Con Richard Horton, had received a written warning.
For more details see Force disciplines police blogger (BBC News: UK).
Apparently, The Times has named the police officer who keeps the blog - not the first time this paper has outed a high-profile blogger!
Some details...
A serving detective whose anonymous blog carried criticisms of government ministers and police bureaucracy has been disciplined by his force.
The action, by Lancashire Constabulary, follows the exposure of the blogger "Night Jack" by the Times newspaper.
He was unmasked after the High Court rejected his plea that his anonymity be preserved "in the public interest".
Lancashire Constabulary said the blogger, named as Det Con Richard Horton, had received a written warning.
For more details see Force disciplines police blogger (BBC News: UK).
Work blog turned into "comedy" show
In yesterday's Sunday Times was a story about a rather well known work blog - Blood Bus: A Driver's Blog of Night Bus Terror.The story concerns the blog being turned into a radio show for BBC Scotland's Comedy Unit.
The show is on Friday, May 22nd at 6.10 p.m. - details here and how to listen if you are not based in Scotland.
A couple of snippets from the article...
Reasons for start blogging about work - a way of poking fun at the passengers whose antisocial behaviour can turn an eight-hour shift behind the wheel into an interminable ordeal.
The basis for the blog - a host of characters, based on real passengers, including drunks, neds, junkies and muppets.
Why keep blogging - I could never run out of stories...There’s always something going on.
The company's view of the blog - "First has no official association with the blog. We do not endorse any of the comments made and firmly believe that the views represented are certainly not indicative of the majority of our employees”.
See All aboard the Bloodbus route to terror and comedy by Gillian Harris for more details.
Work blogger is front page news
In today's Guardian the front page contains direct reference to a well-known British work blogger - Dr John Crippen.
The story relates to the outbreak of Swine flu.
The story itself concerns how the media reports the country to be on high alert, yet no one appears to have communicated this to NHS doctors.
A sample extract:
I have not been "alerted".
None of my partners has been "alerted" either.
There is a general assumption that GPs will already have received definitive guidance from on high.
No such guidance has arrived.
My second patient this morning asked: "My wife and I are going on holiday to Mexico on Saturday. Should we cancel?"
I said that, on balance, I would still go, but I needed to take advice.
As doctors on the front line we need a consensus as to the most sensible advice to give out.
We scheduled an urgent partners' meeting for later in the morning...
See 'Apparently we're on high alert. Nobody alerted me' for more details.
The story relates to the outbreak of Swine flu.
The story itself concerns how the media reports the country to be on high alert, yet no one appears to have communicated this to NHS doctors.
A sample extract:
I have not been "alerted".
None of my partners has been "alerted" either.
There is a general assumption that GPs will already have received definitive guidance from on high.
No such guidance has arrived.
My second patient this morning asked: "My wife and I are going on holiday to Mexico on Saturday. Should we cancel?"
I said that, on balance, I would still go, but I needed to take advice.
As doctors on the front line we need a consensus as to the most sensible advice to give out.
We scheduled an urgent partners' meeting for later in the morning...
See 'Apparently we're on high alert. Nobody alerted me' for more details.
Work blogging research article finally out!
This is to announce that I've managed to get a second research article published based on my ongoing research into work blogging.Details of previous output can be viewed here and version of this paper can be viewed in the right-hand tool bar.
The second piece of work is entitled Creating, Connecting and Correcting: Motivations and Meanings of Work-Blogging Amongst Public Service Workers? and written with the help of a friend and colleague of mine - Vaughan Ellis.
This piece of work is now a chapter in book entitled Work Matters by Sharon Bolton and Maeve Houlihan and published by Palgrave Macmillan (ISBN: 9780230576391) - more details here.
Due to copyright restrictions I cannot offer a copy via my blog, but this statement by the books editors should give you an idea if you wish to purchase a copy:
With technology as a continuing theme, our final chapter explores the emerging phenomenon of work blogging, what it means and what it does.
The interactive capacity of the internet has created a stunningly accessible medium for individuals to directly voice their realities, not least in relation to their work.
Vaughan Ellis and James Richards offer a compelling snapshot of just how dynamically this medium is used to make hidden worlds of work publicly visible and understood, in their exploration of the motivations and practices of work bloggers within the UK public sector.
Through their eyes, we learn the ways in which many workers are choosing to voice their experiences of work: at times to create, at times to connect, and indeed, at times to correct.
Vaughan and James, through indepth (and online) dialogue with nine active bloggers, get under the skin of this activity and push past easy assumptions about blogs as ‘mere’ forums for venting, complaining, exposing or resisting corporate ideology, under the canvas of anonymity.
The authors build a nuanced understanding of its uses, behind which, we get a telling glimpse of the degree to which, echoing one theme of this volume, work matters in peoples’ lives.
From a research methods perspective, Vaughan and James also usefully examine the opportunities and issues relating to work blogging as a means of accessing direct workplace accounts, and discuss online methods of research more generally.
In doing so, they signpost emergent dimensions of research practice as yet not well appreciated, and assuredly set to expand.
Ferryman blog
Scanning through today's Times I came a cross and article about a work blogger - Life at the end of the road: The trial and tribulations of an accidental crofter.
Details courtesy of Melanie Reid:
Anyone island-hopping from Skye to the island of Raasay this Easter - if they can drag their eyes from the scenery - should look out for one particular employee of Caledonian Macbrayne, the ferry operator, with a serious twinkle in his eye and a camera in his pocket.
Paul Camilli, the motor man on board the boat that shuttles between Sconser and Raasay, is no traditional Skye boatman.
For one thing, he comes from Accrington.
For another, he has become, quite unintentionally, an internet hit with his remarkable daily blog, Life At the End of the Road.
On it, he posts the illustrated tales and travails of the little ferry, along with the story of his remote croft on the northern tip of Raasay, where he and his family nurture pigs, hens and an elderly Land Rover.
Mr Camilli does, by almost every measure, have a rather wonderful job.
Sometimes the rain is like a power washer, but often he has the sun on his face and the mountains soaring above his head.
And that speck in the sky above him is usually an eagle...
See Boatman makes waves with his blog from Raasay.
Details courtesy of Melanie Reid:
Anyone island-hopping from Skye to the island of Raasay this Easter - if they can drag their eyes from the scenery - should look out for one particular employee of Caledonian Macbrayne, the ferry operator, with a serious twinkle in his eye and a camera in his pocket.
Paul Camilli, the motor man on board the boat that shuttles between Sconser and Raasay, is no traditional Skye boatman.
For one thing, he comes from Accrington.
For another, he has become, quite unintentionally, an internet hit with his remarkable daily blog, Life At the End of the Road.
On it, he posts the illustrated tales and travails of the little ferry, along with the story of his remote croft on the northern tip of Raasay, where he and his family nurture pigs, hens and an elderly Land Rover.
Mr Camilli does, by almost every measure, have a rather wonderful job.
Sometimes the rain is like a power washer, but often he has the sun on his face and the mountains soaring above his head.
And that speck in the sky above him is usually an eagle...
See Boatman makes waves with his blog from Raasay.
Doctor of work blogging
Abigail Schoneboom has put her PhD on-line.
The subject is work blogging.
The title and abstract:
Hiding Out: Creative Resistance Among Anonymous Workbloggers
Anonymous workbloggers -- employees who write online diaries about their work -- are often simultaneously productive workers and savage critics of the organizational cultures in which they toil.
Looking at how bloggers indulge their creative and political aspirations while "hiding out" in office jobs, this research assesses the potential of blogging to transcend individualized cynicism and contribute to the critical transformation of work.
Broadly surveying media and organizational responses to the workblogging phenomenon, and engaging in ethnographic study of anonymous workbloggers on both sides of the Atlantic, my dissertation explores the relationship between emerging networked technologies and resistance.
Considering workers as authors, it documents the diversion of significant creative and intellectual resources away from the labor process.
Situating workbloggers within a rich tradition of iconoclastic literary and artistic responses to work, it explores whether embedded writers, in spite of their ambivalence about the alternative, can constitute an effective counter-hegemonic force.
From the following link you can access the full PhD as well as three papers based around the doctoral thesis.
The subject is work blogging.
The title and abstract:
Hiding Out: Creative Resistance Among Anonymous Workbloggers
Anonymous workbloggers -- employees who write online diaries about their work -- are often simultaneously productive workers and savage critics of the organizational cultures in which they toil.
Looking at how bloggers indulge their creative and political aspirations while "hiding out" in office jobs, this research assesses the potential of blogging to transcend individualized cynicism and contribute to the critical transformation of work.
Broadly surveying media and organizational responses to the workblogging phenomenon, and engaging in ethnographic study of anonymous workbloggers on both sides of the Atlantic, my dissertation explores the relationship between emerging networked technologies and resistance.
Considering workers as authors, it documents the diversion of significant creative and intellectual resources away from the labor process.
Situating workbloggers within a rich tradition of iconoclastic literary and artistic responses to work, it explores whether embedded writers, in spite of their ambivalence about the alternative, can constitute an effective counter-hegemonic force.
From the following link you can access the full PhD as well as three papers based around the doctoral thesis.
Work blog paper
An earlier copy of my work blog-based research can be downloaded or read on-line here.
A new work blog
I've hardly kept my list of work blogs up-to-date for some time - apologies!
I have, however, added one promising work blog today - The Angry Receptionist.
It's on its own as far as I know and I'm not aware of any other receptionists blogging before.
Here are some details:
I'm a receptionist at a mid-sized corporate office.
When I first started here, I was very nice.
It took about a week for everyone to try to take advantage of my good will in every awful way possible.
I'm not nice anymore.
It may be time to treat your employees or colleagues well or face being written about on the Internet!
Please fill in one of my web and work questionnaires.
I have, however, added one promising work blog today - The Angry Receptionist.
It's on its own as far as I know and I'm not aware of any other receptionists blogging before.
Here are some details:
I'm a receptionist at a mid-sized corporate office.
When I first started here, I was very nice.
It took about a week for everyone to try to take advantage of my good will in every awful way possible.
I'm not nice anymore.
It may be time to treat your employees or colleagues well or face being written about on the Internet!
Please fill in one of my web and work questionnaires.
When work blogging gets out of hand
I missed this story about a so-called 'rogue' work blogger that went out at the end of March 2008.
It involved an employee of Cisco Systems who used his blog to wage 'a long, public battle against so-called patent trolls'.
The blog was initially viewed as a 'forum for information, not invective', yet it eventually led to the blogger (or employee of Cisco Systems, as it turns out to be) outing the under-hand, possibly illegal, practices of his employer.
It seems that both are likely to face criminal investigation.
For more details see Busting a Rogue Blogger by Michael Orey of Business Week.
It involved an employee of Cisco Systems who used his blog to wage 'a long, public battle against so-called patent trolls'.
The blog was initially viewed as a 'forum for information, not invective', yet it eventually led to the blogger (or employee of Cisco Systems, as it turns out to be) outing the under-hand, possibly illegal, practices of his employer.
It seems that both are likely to face criminal investigation.
For more details see Busting a Rogue Blogger by Michael Orey of Business Week.
Web 2.0 and the threat to 'employer brand'
In the current People Magazine (20 March 2008) Lucy Phillips has a go at bloggers, pressure groups and trade unions.
It seems that employers are getting a bit fed up because they spend so much time and money building a corporate image, and then troublemakers go spoiling their private party. Doh!
Examples given include bloggers who spill the beans, Unite running a campaign against Marks and Spencer (based on poor treatment of workers), which in themselves are pretty poor examples in the first place.
Since when has it been wrong to criticise the civil service, and since when is it okay for employers to don ear muffs at the first accusation of a wrongdoing?
I'm quite glad to hear later on in the article that employers have no special forms of protection in this domain.
Perhaps employers should consult their employees about brand image and be less selective as to what constitutes their brand.
If so, they wouldn't have much to worry about.
See Control, alt or delete... for more details.
It seems that employers are getting a bit fed up because they spend so much time and money building a corporate image, and then troublemakers go spoiling their private party. Doh!
Examples given include bloggers who spill the beans, Unite running a campaign against Marks and Spencer (based on poor treatment of workers), which in themselves are pretty poor examples in the first place.
Since when has it been wrong to criticise the civil service, and since when is it okay for employers to don ear muffs at the first accusation of a wrongdoing?
I'm quite glad to hear later on in the article that employers have no special forms of protection in this domain.
Perhaps employers should consult their employees about brand image and be less selective as to what constitutes their brand.
If so, they wouldn't have much to worry about.
See Control, alt or delete... for more details.
Work blogs back in the news
It's been a good few months since work blogs represented a major press feature.
In yesterday's Sunday Times was a story about a blogger reporting on the inner-workings of the current labour government.
The Civil Serf - as she calls herself - claims to be a 33-year-old fast-stream civil servant ready to expose the daily chaos of the Labour government machine while lampooning ministers and highlighting the idiocy of mandarin colleagues.
In yesterday's Sunday Times was a story about a blogger reporting on the inner-workings of the current labour government.
The Civil Serf - as she calls herself - claims to be a 33-year-old fast-stream civil servant ready to expose the daily chaos of the Labour government machine while lampooning ministers and highlighting the idiocy of mandarin colleagues.
For more details see Hunt is on for the "Civil Serf" demon blogger of Whitehall by Jonathan Oliver.
Work blogs as creative resistance
It's a first as far as I'm aware, but the first academic article on work blogging has just been published.
It's written by Abigail Schoneboom and published by the journal Ethnography (subscription required).
An abstract of the article follows:
Anonymous workbloggers — employees who write online diaries about their work — are often simultaneously productive workers and savage critics of the organizational cultures in which they toil.
This research focuses on a small group of white-collar workers from the Greater Manchester and Lancashire area, who risk their jobs by writing publicly about their office experiences under assumed identities.
Countering the notion that resistance to corporate culture leads to `confusion and emptiness' (Willmott, 1993: 538), this study contributes to the recent revival of interest in worker misbehavior and recalcitrance.
By focusing on workers as authors, it addresses a shortcoming in the existing critical literature, which treats informal employee resistance as an intellectually and artistically unsophisticated phenomenon.
Drawing parallels with the lives and work of authors such as Franz Kafka and T.S. Eliot, it evaluates whether embedded writers, in spite of their ambivalence about the alternative, can constitute an effective counter-hegemonic force.
It's called Diary of a working boy: Creative resistance among anonymous workbloggers.
Hopefully my work will becoming out some time in 2008, as well as another paper I have planned for a conference in March.
It's written by Abigail Schoneboom and published by the journal Ethnography (subscription required).
An abstract of the article follows:
Anonymous workbloggers — employees who write online diaries about their work — are often simultaneously productive workers and savage critics of the organizational cultures in which they toil.
This research focuses on a small group of white-collar workers from the Greater Manchester and Lancashire area, who risk their jobs by writing publicly about their office experiences under assumed identities.
Countering the notion that resistance to corporate culture leads to `confusion and emptiness' (Willmott, 1993: 538), this study contributes to the recent revival of interest in worker misbehavior and recalcitrance.
By focusing on workers as authors, it addresses a shortcoming in the existing critical literature, which treats informal employee resistance as an intellectually and artistically unsophisticated phenomenon.
Drawing parallels with the lives and work of authors such as Franz Kafka and T.S. Eliot, it evaluates whether embedded writers, in spite of their ambivalence about the alternative, can constitute an effective counter-hegemonic force.
It's called Diary of a working boy: Creative resistance among anonymous workbloggers.
Hopefully my work will becoming out some time in 2008, as well as another paper I have planned for a conference in March.
Looking for a reason to blog about work?
A research paper I wrote earlier this year looked at why people blogged about their work.
The findings suggested work blogging serves a range of ends to those brave enough to tell how it is where they work.
On Monday work blogging reached new and dizzy heights with a whole Panorama programme dedicated to following through the claims of one very popular work blogger.
The blogger in question - a police officer called David Copperfield (or Stuart Davidson) - had this to say about why he started blogging about work and what kept him blogging:
"When I went to the Internet to look for information about policing, you could find loads of information about police cars, or loads of information about serial killers, but you couldn't find anything on the Internet about what it's like to be an ordinary policeman.
That's just what I was - an ordinary policeman; I wasn't a detective in some sort of special unit dealing with fire arms, or anything like that.
I was just an ordinary policeman.
And, er, nobody else was writing about what their job was like...
...I think one of the reasons [The Policeman's Blog] has become so popular is because the stories I tell about my life as a policeman are not unique.
Initially I thought they were.
I thought nobody else could be doing things that are so insane, but it transpires that thousands and thousands of other police officers are out there doing exactly the same sort of things, which is completely insane."
There are many things that could be taken from the comments of David Copperfield, but generally, it just goes to show how influential a well-written blog can be - the programme is available on-line here.
It's just a shame more people don't blog about their work.
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