September 08, 2003
EMPLOYEE BLOGGING....Tired of quickie newspaper pieces about
blogging that tell you for the hundredth time that (a) they're really
cool and (b) Instapundit is the most widely known? Looking for some
more meat?
This month's issue of the Harvard Business Review has a pretty
good case study about the intersection of blogging and the real world —
for both good and ill. Names and industries have been changed to
protect the guilty.
I don't feel like commenting much about the story except to express
some astonishment that two of the four "expert commentators" (at the end
of the article) seem blissfully unconcerned about the potential
liability problems posed by an employee discussing confidential company
information in a public forum — and a third mentions it only in passing.
I know that information wants to be free and we've all got to get on
the cluetrain and all that, but the SEC takes a pretty dim view of that
kind of activity even if blogging is the Next Big Thing.
Here's the story:
Oops, it turns out HBR really doesn't want me to post the whole
article here, and who can blame them? Here's the executive summary
instead, or you can buy a copy online for six bucks.
A Blogger in Their Midst
By Halley Suitt
It was five minutes before show time, and only 15 people had wandered
into the conference room to hear Lancaster-Webb CEO Will Somerset
introduce the company's latest line of surgical gloves. More important,
sales prospect Samuel Taylor, medical director of the Houston Clinic,
had failed to show. Will walked out of the ballroom to steady his nerves
and noticed a spillover crowd down the hall. He made a "What's up?"
gesture to Judy Chen, Lancaster-Webb's communications chief. She came
over to him. "It's Glove Girl. You know, the blogger," Judy said, as if
this explained anything. "I think she may have stolen your crowd." "Who
is she?" Will asked.
Glove Girl was a factory worker at Lancaster-Webb, whose always
outspoken, often informative postings on her web log had developed quite
a following. Will was new to the world of blogging, but he quickly
learned about its power in a briefing with his staff. After Glove Girl
had raved about Lancaster-Webb's older SteriTouch disposable gloves,
orders had surged. More recently, though, Glove Girl had questioned the
Houston Clinic's business practices, posting damaging information at her
site about its rate of cesarean deliveries--to Sam Taylor's
consternation.
This fictional case study considers the question of whether a highly
credible, but sometimes inaccurate and often indiscreet, online diarist
is more of a liability than an asset to her employer. What, if anything,
should Will do about Glove Girl? Four commentators--David Weinberger,
author of Small Pieces Loosely Joined; Pamela Samuelson, a professor of
law and information management at the University of California,
Berkeley; Ray Ozzie, CEO and chairman of Groove Networks; and Erin
Motameni, vice-president of human resources at EMC--offer expert advice.
Posted by Kevin Drum at September 8, 2003 02:10 PM
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I've had a subscription to HBR for a couple of years. It's
important to remember that the quality of their articles ranges from
good to 'we need to fill X pages, and the deadline is today'.
No better illustration of how paranoid and employee-averse the human
resources mindset is. Motameni exemplifies how HR looks at every
situation. . a danger that is chiefly addressed by reinforcing a fearful
company line.
Was that fictionalized? It reminds me of the tedious novels written
for teenagers to persuade them to quit screwing and smoking dope --
someone who can't write decides "This will be more persuasive if we put
it in the form of a story".
Glove girl sounds terribly naive. She was a low-level employee doing
this on her own time, not fearing retribution and also not expecting to
be paid? I could actually believe a non-employee nurse starting a site
to share with other nurses having that kind of effect.
I used to be in the glove business. Quite awhile back I saw a news
story covering the first cases of patient-to-caregiver HIV transmission.
If I'd put my life savings into latex then I would have made a killing
-- I even thought about it. (One man-about-own did just that, and then
committed suicide when latex returned to normal. He was a few months
behind the curve). Glove companies sprang up overnight, and people who
started wearing gloves all the time found they had allergies. Each glove
is a little different -- some have longer thumbs, etc. We ended up
stocking something like 10 different brands, some of them fly-by-night,
until the cost-control people cracked down. (Nitrile gloves are
expensive special-purpose gloves, but some people used them routinely).
I realize that no one wants to read this, but I'll probably never have another chance to reminisce about the great glove crisis.
Oddly, I noticed that my employer showed up at my blog today. Or,
someone from that company. No one I work with directly knows that I
blog, and I rarely if ever write about work, except in the abstract.
I've never mentioned the name of my employer, the nature of my work
there, nor have I ever come close to divulging any proprietary
knowledge. I'm wondering if I might ever be disciplined for any
political opinions I've expressed?
Of course, it could be a coincidence. That someone from the company
that employs me has visited my blog. The problem is: my blog is blocked,
as per the company's internet policy (as are most blogs) marked as it
is as an 'opinion' site. Opinion sites and sex sites are not to viewed
on company time, on company computers. Personally I have no problem with
that policy.
Maybe the company is loosening its policy. Though, to be honest,
there does seem to be a reaction against all things interent at work
these days.
Curious.
Sidereal: actually, what struck me was the dichotomy. Yeah, the HR
person was stuck in fear mode, but the others seemed to barely care
about the very real issues involved with having an employee spouting
confidential information on a website.
Bloggers mostly seem to have a Dilbertish sense of what business is
like, and I really don't think it's well founded. HR people don't end
up setting policy on this stuff, but believe it or not, their concerns
are well founded.
Zizka: It sounds like Glove Girl's blog was mostly a personal blog,
but one where she talked about her work too. I also note that she was
supposedly a COO at a previous company, so she really should have known
better.
I'm trying to picture any of the medical directors or directors of
nursing I work with getting involved in the decisions of which surgical
gloves to purchase........not gonna happen.
Seems to me L-W could institute a policy whereby employee bloggers agree
to prominently post a disclaimer stating they don't speak for the
company and agree not to reveal any proprietary or confidential info.
Company's legal ass is covered and the bloggers can do their thing.
Well, I would not be surprised if Zizka didn't have it right, it is fictionalized.
If it ain't, well the communications lady urgently needs the boot.
What sort of flack fails to inform the CEO about a company blogger?
What sort of flack lets the CEO walk into a empty meeting????????
And, er, yeah, there need to be some policies. And the question about
whether a company blogger, even if unofficial, is commercial or
personal speech is not at all clear to me.
It is just a question of time until some Linda Tripp character gets her own web log, how would you like to be her co-worker?
I don't know if it's fictionalized, but the names and industry have
definitely been changed. There is no Glove Girl and there is no
Lancaster-Webb glove company.
I agree that much of this story doesn't ring true, and I say that as a corporate marketing guy. But it might be. Who knows?
It's funny you should mention Instapundit.
I never visit that site :) It's not that hot.
So why is it so widely known?
*boggle*
Y'all know that Halley Suitt has her own blog right?
Glove Girl has taken on a bit of a life of its own. It is fictional
though although there have been quite a few cases of folks getting
canned for their blogs in the real world.
As an aside, is it okay to post an entire HBR case-study for public consumption on your blog?
I know it's close to your heart and all, but I couldn't get through
that story, even skimming. circuit court opinions are more
entertaining.
and fwiw, the SEC doesn't give a rat's ass what your employees are
blogging, unless you are a public entity and the blogged information is
material, nonpublic information. trade secrets are your business to
protect, not theirs.
Kevin - I have sort of a Dilbertish sense of what business is like,
but then i'm talking about the Dilbert of 5 years ago, not the Dilbert
of today (the strip's quality and relevance have declined markedly). And
yet I realize that the concerns of HR departments, and marketing
departments, are valid - the problem usually is that these departments
and the techies are utterly unable to communicate with each other.
As for work-related blogging ... that's been a major concern of
mine since day one. I'm a programmer at a reasonably well known software
vendor whose name I have mentioned from time to time in various public
fora; I don't want anything I say to reflect poorly on the company, and I
don't want to violate my non-disclosure agreement. But there are times
when work frustration is the most compelling thing in my life, and the
only thing interesting I can think of to blog about.
My general rules for such things are:
- Never disclose foreward-looking information (eg., product releases, product planning, code names, etc).
- When talking about bugs, speak very specifically about the exact low-level problem without providing any context whatsoever;
- When speaking about corporate bureaucratic problems, refrain
from naming individuals (using abstract positional titles instead) and
present it with the attitude that this is just normal everyday corporate
nonsense that could be found in any company anywhere;
- Never mention the name of the company in any post which is actually about work.
But i'm still uncomfortable and vaguely nervous about discussing work on my blog, even when I adhere to these rules.
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