The real world intrudes
I've been blogging openly, under my real name, for so long -- coming up on two years here; continually for more than four years and off and on since 1997 in my nonwork life -- that I sometimes slip a little into the delusion that what I do is both normal and safe.
It isn't.
In fact, blogging as a defined part of one's job isn't even "normal" in this newsroom, let alone in the U.S. white-collar work force at large. For most people, it also isn't safe. And every once in a while, we get an ugly reminder of that fact.
Blogging, done right, can enhance a lot of businesses. But if you're blogging from work and it's not part of your job, please think twice about that. If you blog anonymously or pseudonymously and having your real name connected with your blogging might create professional or personal problems for you, please reconsider. Is your blogging worth getting fired over, to you?
In a perfect world, our personal opinions wouldn't create any negative consequences for us. In the world we live in, however, they can and do, all the time, and with very limited exceptions you'll have no recourse when it happens. If your employer gets angry over your blogging, you might or might not have the opportunity to quit blogging before you get fired. That's bad enough if you're single and supporting no one but yourself. If you're supporting others, it's infinitely worse.
Even if the worst consequence you might suffer is the hurt feelings of someone you care for, ask yourself whether the pleasure of blogging is worth inflicting that hurt.
Blogging is intoxicating. I know that better than most because I have been more intoxicated than most. But as with any intoxicant, too much, or even a little at the wrong place and time, can result in disaster, and neither the online world nor the real one is particularly forgiving.
So be careful out there.
