Tim at Lonely Man’s Blog gots fired for blogging.
Yep, after 6 1/2 years I got fired today for the internet activities I mentioned here.
And it was specifically mentioned that the theme of my blog surfing being religion was against their diversity principles and that someone somewhere in the company might become offended. I usually went to Catholic blogsites when at work. They also sited my involvement with Lonelygirl15 as an issue. But I never went to any site of hers. I posted a comment to a Catholic blog (BettNet.com) about her and read a news article discussing her. My department head said that that was age-inappropriate.
Not knowing the details of his company’s policy on at-work internet use I can’t say whether this was against their written policy. I know most companies do have some policy that allows people to use the internet at work for non-work related surfing. Most of the restrictions are usually related to so-called adult sites and my own company specifically restricts blogging. Though I am always too busy writing code and generally geeking out to do any recreational web surfing anyway at work.
If they specifically objected to Catholic blogsites as being against diversity principles, then this seems to be a pretty broad brush. Could you only surf syncretistic sites? Specifying Lonelygirl115 as not being age appropriate is rather silly considering that this was a faux project setup by a New York film school graduate that mocked religious homeschooling parents. The whole thing does seem to be rather heavy handed and something that should have been handled in a way other than firing.
Tim could certainly use your prayers right now.
5 comments
Prayers going up!
I surf at work too and keep wondering when the axe will fall although as far as I know they only object to porn. I do not update my blog at work but I will comment on other’s blog during coffee time.
I think he mentioned collections of some sort in his post? If he works for a collections company, they tend to be a bit myopic and love to micro-manage their employees down to most minute detail of their days. I have a friend who worked for several different collections companies and they are all the same. If this is the case, then it may be a blessing in disguize for Lonely Man. May God bless and keep him and lead to him a job where he will be happy!
He lives in Las Vegas where job opportunities are more than the rest of the country. Nonetheless, losing a job is never a treat anyone wants to go through.
Hey, Mr. Jester, thanks for the post! Much appreciated.
Yeah, my department manager did specifically mention the religious nature of the blogs I viewed as being against their diversity policies. I hate political correctness.
Still trying to figure out the nuances of age-appropriateness, though….
I guess it’s time to start packing St. Augustine’s Confessions, my Catholic World Report, Homiletic Pastoral Review and a few other things to keep me off the web during lunch.
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