I was going to stay away from this topic because I keep saying the same thing over and over again and it gets old after awhile. However, I received emails/IMs about my thoughts on Mark Jen being fired by Google so to stop repeating myself, I will post my thoughts here. That’s what a blog is for right?

What I find slightly amusing is that bloggers got him fired. Someone read about, thought “Oh shit…no he just didn’t say that…” and blogged about it. Then it spread across the net like wildfires. When the blog posts were taken down, again someone spotted it and posted about it and again, it spread “Mark is in trouble cause the posts were removed…but guess what?!? I found a cache of it, so look at what he didn’t want you to see!”

Now before you tell me bloggers didn’t get Mark fired, think about it. His blog is brand new, less than 15 posts on it. So it wasn’t his popularity that did him in. If other bloggers hadn’t drawn attention to his posts it would have been like a drop of water in an ocean – no one would have noticed it. When he took the posts down, people pointed to the cache.

It was obvious to anyone with any common sense that the speed in which the whole thing snowballed that he was going to get fired.

It’s been suggested that Google should have discusses this issue with him. Hello! It’s not the employer’s job to wipe the butt of their employees when they screw up. The blatant honest truth is that he should have had enough sense to know not to post the material he posted.

So let’s break it down real simple like: Robert Scoble is the exception to the rule. He has gotten away with a lot of stuff on his blog only because he’s not saying what someone else hasn’t said a thousand times over. Everyday, hundreds of times a day, someone is saying something bad about Microsoft. Yes it carries weight that an employee is saying it but again, it’s nothing someone else hasn’t already said…over and over again. I think it’s great that he speaks up and I enjoy reading his blog but think about it – the thoughts are already out there…or will be shortly.

If you think you can get away with what Robert Scoble is doing you’re asking for trouble. Most likely you will get fired. If you attempt to put a humorous tone to your posts, that will only make your employer more upset.

Contrary to popular belief everything shouldn’t be blogged. Everything shouldn’t be leaked. Everything shouldn’t be scooped. Everything is not transparent. Guess what – there are some things that are just not our business…we don’t have the right to know everything. Sometimes it’s best to just shut up.

I wish Mark well, I hope he learns from this and just as important I hope others learn from this. There have been enough people fired that there is really no good excuse for anyone else to be.