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TheStar
01-23-2009, 01:09 PM
I didn't know the proper place to put this thread, but since it is about a blog, I decided to post it here.

I want to write a blog about my experience in the last 7 months at my former job. I got fired this morning for unknown/personal reasons and I would like to vent through this blog. I really want to spill my guts about this company but I don't want to say anything that would constitute a lawsuit. Everything in the blog will be the truth.

Am I free to say anything I want in this blog? Is there something I shouldn't mention. I am writing this blog because I received unfair treatment ever since a new manager took over.

seolman
01-23-2009, 01:33 PM
Well - I'm not a great legal expert so I can't really address this issue too well. I just wanted to say I'm sorry to hear you got fired and to not let it get you down. All of us at one time or another have been through a similar experience and you'll go through the anger and depression that comes with it. All of that is temporary. You have a value. You have experience. You have something to offer another company that wants your experience. Don't doubt it. Keep your head up.

vangogh
01-23-2009, 02:01 PM
First sorry about the job. Leaving any job when it's not your choice isn't easy and you're likely feeling a lot of emotion. Which leads me to my second point. Before starting any blog venting about the company wait a week or two and see how you feel. If you want to write posts go ahead, but don't publish them until at least a few days have gone by and even better a few weeks. Chances are you just need to get it out of your system and the writing will be cathartic. Once it's out of your system you may want to reconsider the idea of publishing, but even if you still do want to publish and launch a blog you'll have a few weeks of posts ready.

Legally I'm not sure how things would work. If you never mention the company by name you probably can't get in trouble, but there are ways it can be figured out who you're talking about and it could cause legal problems at some point.

But again you're best option is not to start this blog. Odds are the desire to vent and the emotion you feel at having lost your job is the sole reason for wanting to publish. You're understandably angry and want to get back at your former employer. Very little good could come from that. Write what you want to get it out of your system, but hold off on publishing until some times has passed and you can look back on what happened with some perspective.

billbenson
01-23-2009, 02:22 PM
Its kind of burning bridges as well. I had a horrible job a while back. They didn't fire me, but they intentionally made my life so miserable that I quit. A real slimebag operation. I still shook the owners hand when I left and I'm sure I could get a recommendation letter out of him if I needed it. I wouldn't burn any bridges.

It doesn't mean you can't start a blog, but I'd keep it pretty general.

vangogh
01-23-2009, 02:53 PM
I can think of ways you could write the blog in a mostly constructive way. Maybe as a business advice blog that sometimes uses this company as a what not to do. But you need more distance and perspective to be able to write that.

Write whatever you want not, but let some time pass before making any decision about publishing. Once you publish there's no turning back and you may feel very different a month from now than you do right at this moment.

KristineS
01-23-2009, 03:01 PM
I have to second what others have said about giving yourself some time and distance before you publish anything. I also think the idea about writing a blog that uses this particular company as a what not to do is a good idea.

If you have any concerns about legal issues, I'd check it out with an expert. The last thing you want to do is compound your troubles by getting slapped with a lawsuit.

TheStar
01-23-2009, 03:10 PM
Yes, I am angry about it but I expected it. My termination was pretty much a conspiracy. But this blog isn't just about my anger. This company is very unprofessional and unethical. Sure, nothing they did was illegal, but I think any owner should know what's going on at his/her business. I guess my main purpose of the blog would be to expose and express my opinion on the crookedness and unprofessionalism of this company.

Vangogh, I will take your advice about waiting a while to publish it. Besides, it's going to take me a while to write it, plus I'm waiting to see what my limits are. I will get over the fact that I was treated unfairly and got terminated for it - that's no problem. As a matter of fact, I find it quite hilarious how the manager and district manager went about the whole situation. They were it cahoots

TheStar
01-23-2009, 03:14 PM
I have to second what others have said about giving yourself some time and distance before you publish anything. I also think the idea about writing a blog that uses this particular company as a what not to do is a good idea.

If you have any concerns about legal issues, I'd check it out with an expert. The last thing you want to do is compound your troubles by getting slapped with a lawsuit.

Yes, I'm actually checking it out with an expert. I'm sure it will be months before I publish it anyway, so I'm not rushing things at all.

Thanks everyone. I'd love to get more advice :D

seolman
01-23-2009, 03:38 PM
We've all been there. Politics and backstabbing happen but you should still give it time before you put anything in a public forum for viewing.

Take a look at this:

How Not to be a Key Online Influencer | David Henderson - author, journalist (http://tinyurl.com/9l6bnz)

I'm not saying you would do something like this guy did. It's just a sober reminder of what can happen even from a single sentence.

Live vangogh says - you may feel a lot different a month from now. The bitterness may take a while to wear off but the desire to retaliate will fade.

TheStar
01-23-2009, 03:56 PM
Interesting.

Hmm, well, I'm not bitter about it all. Actually glad to be away. But I will be careful about everything. I don't plan on defaming the owner or the business. After reading everyone's post, I decided not to mention some things that I was going to. I will write the blog but I definitely won't publish it until I get some expert legal advice.

vangogh
01-23-2009, 05:40 PM
Glad to hear you're going to wait before publishing. In the end this is obviously your decision. If it were me I'd get out what I wanted to get in private and then move on. I think if you focus too much on the past you just end up living in the past.

But if you decide to go ahead with the blog it's your decision. Waiting will give you a better perspective on whether or not you really want to start the blog and the best direction to take should you decide you still want to.

Harold Mansfield
01-30-2009, 04:09 PM
I personally wouldn't go that route no matter how bad you got screwed over. My suggestion is if you want to stay in that profession that you shouldn't let other possible employers know that you may be a bad risk if things don't work out, or that you cannot be trusted with proprietary secrets, or inside information.

Also if some of your blogging exposes things about day to day operations, you will probably be sued by your former employer.

I would take it as a learning experience and take it to the next employer or next business endeavor of "what not to do".

I have quit and or been fired from more than one job and each time I learned how not to do things, which really ended up with a nice understanding of "how to" do them.

When things like this happen to us that are emotional, we tend to want to lash out and prove to others that we are not the bad guy, but it really does not accomplish anything except make you look like a sore loser.

I can't tell you how many people I have interviewed in the Bar and Restaurant business that sat in front of me with sour grapes about their last employer....and I of course did not hire just because they gave off the impression that their energy, and emotion was still back there instead of here where I needed them, and no one wants to hire a "sour grapes" virus to infect their staff.

When I was a bartender, whenever I was let go form a bar or night club, I made it my mission to move up and work for a better one that made me more money, or running one and tackling my former employers in head on competition. Then when I saw some of my former employers, it felt great that I was now making more money for me and my new employer doing the very same thing that I tried in desperation to get them to do, but was met with deaf ears.

Success is always the best revenge. It works with old bosses as well as old girlfriends.

One of my favorite movie quotes is: "I have lost a lot of money chasing women, but I have never lost women chasing money."

Basically, don't waste time with things that are going to be insignificant to your success. You will miss new opportunity ahead, if you are constantly looking behind.

I of course do not work in that industry anymore and if you had told me I would be doing this back then, I wouldn't have known what you were talking about. But I never looked back, always forward, and took every experience with me into the industry that I am in now.

If I had stayed in that industry, like many of my friends have, to prove how good I still am, I would be miserable right now.
I moved on, and tried new things, and low and behold one thing led to another, step by step, and now I don't work for anyone.

Believe me, when I run into former bosses or co-workers, being able to say that is so much more full filling than saying, "Yeah, I started a blog about how bad they suck and how hey screwed me over".

Stop worrying about bringing them down, and worry about bringing yourself up.

vangogh
01-30-2009, 04:31 PM
When things like this happen to us that are emotional, we tend to want to lash out and prove to others that we are not the bad guy, but it really does not accomplish anything except make you look like a sore loser.

Well said. The desire to lash out is understandable, but in the end accomplishes nothing. If anything it makes things worse. Always best to learn from the experience and move on to the next thing.

Living well is always the best revenge.

rezzy
01-30-2009, 04:41 PM
Sorry about your job lose, I know this is not an easy time for you or anyone else in your situation.

On to your question:

As far as reporting the unethical practices of a business, I believe there is a time and place. That time, is not now. If you really wanted to bring those injustices to light, the time was last week. Any outsider would conceive this as an attempt to stick it to the company after they stuck to it to you.

I think everyone sees shady business happening, whether its friends helping friends, money under the carpet, etc. This type of behavior needs to be reported to the correct people in a timely fashion, not as an after thought to blackmail someone.

==I always believe karma comes back around.