Jason Chow

On dumb bosses, crazy crazies, and sextalk.

A list of dumb company policies. My personal favourite on this list: "If a customer asks for a bathroom, do not let him or her use it or admit to having one even if the customer sees the employee bathroom sign and is in dire need to relieve themselves."

Also, you might be working with a psychopath. How to tell: Remorseless revelry in causing hardship on other people. Research shows 1-3% of males and 0.5% of females are psychopaths, which doesn't bode well for those of us who work in large places with hundreds of employees. Beware the crazies.

And according to this study we all should be flirting with our colleagues more. Good for camraderie.

The dethroned queen

Chatted with Queen of Sky about her troubles with Delta Airlines yesterday. She was fired last fall for "inappropriate pictures posted on the web" and has been fighting the company's decision ever since and is thinking of filing a sexual discrimination complaint with the federal Equity Employment Opporunity Commission. Interestingly, she said that while the photos weren't exactly the most professional, neither are those who post on dating websites with photos in uniform. I asked her if she regretted her blog. Her response: Yes, if it means the end of her career.

Based on my surfing, I gather that bloggers get fired for a multitude of reasons: complaining about the job, blogging at the job, divulging company secrets and, as in the case of Queen of Sky, a bad photo in corporate garb. (A list of some of the firings.) Also, the problem is that companies are paranoid and are often acting on knee-jerk responses. There are few workplaces that have policies regarding blogging.

If your employer has a blog policy, do tell. And if there are any of you who blog about your jobs and would like to chat about it are more than welcome to email me.

NYC Post-mortem

Just got back from a weekend in NYC. Saw the Christo gates, the new MoMA, and several friends. And for the first time in years, I watched the Oscars. Yes, I did. That said, this was a different experience of sorts, watching it at a hole-in-the-wall bar in Brooklyn and catching up with some old college pals. I'm no fan of awards shows, though I felt rewarded for my perseverence at the end of the show when Chris Rock yelped "Brooklyn!" to the crowd, which I interpreted as a personal message from Mr. Rock to welcome me to the aforementioned borough. Many, including the NY Post, are shitting on Entertainment Weekly's funniest man of 2004 this morning for his not-so-Oscar-like racial humour. Whatever. Let's not forget that Billy Crystal hasn't been funny in almost two decades.

A tip for NY smokers: My friends and I on Friday evening ended up at some Bulgarian club on Broadway/Canal that was 3/4 hipsters, 1/4 greasy dudes with thick accents and yes, they let you puff inside. Up yours, Bloomberg.

As for the job-bloggers project, I have been in contact with Queen of Sky and a couple of other bloggers who've been fired for their online activities and who have asked me to promise to keep their identities hidden while talking about their experiences for fear of it hapenning again. Again, I encourage everybody to send in your job-blogging stories, either in post-format or in an email to me. And for those of you who've been fired for blogging, don't despair. There is hope.

Greetings

Welcome everybody.

About this blog: I'm a journalist with the National Post in Toronto, Canada and I'm working on a project about those of you who blog about your jobs. Over the next few weeks, I would like to get to know some of you job-bloggers. Who are you? Why do you do it? Do you blog on company time? Are you blogging anonymously? Do your employers know you're blogging about them. If so, what do they think? Have you been fired for blogging? If so, what was it about your blog that offended your employer?

I've talked to some job-bloggers and this is what I've gathered: Some see it as an invaluable way to process thoughts and network, others say its a theurapeutic way to deal with an otherwise humdrum job. Do these fit your descriptions?

Please post your thoughts and comments. And do include links to your blogs or to your any of your friends who have work-related blogs.

About me: I've been working as a journalist for four years with the National Post. I'm currently a senior writer with the newspaper's monthly business magazine called National Post Business Magazine and also I'm a columnist about the workplce. Before this job, I was a TV columnist for the newspaper and before that, I was a general assignment reporter. And though I have many blogging friends, including the good people at Torontoist, this, however, is my first blog.

Thank you to Jeremy Wright for his help in assisting me and directing traffic over this way.