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Randy Holloway at Microsoft

Blogging from the field.
Microsoft Blogger Firing
I ran across this story on Slashdot, but I'll link straight to the source. This is unfortunate, but I'm sure there is a more complete story to be told here. In the words of one Microsoft person who shall remain nameless, this is a "PR nightmare" as Microsoft tries to ramp up blogging both internally and in their development communities. As we all know though, blogging, just like any other kind of speech, may have negative consequences. There will be more discussion on this I'm sure.

Posted: Wednesday, October 29, 2003 11:51 AM by RandyHolloway

Comments

Michael said:

My first question is how did MS Security find out about his blog entry in the first place? Sounds like there is more to this story...
# October 29, 2003 2:36 PM

G. Andrew Duthie said:

A "PR nightmare"? That seems a little exaggerated. It's not great publicity, but as I mentioned in response to Paschal's blog on this topic, the only reason anyone even knows about this is because there were Macs involved. Take that away, and it's a complete non-story. Actually, it's still a non-story, IMO, that some people want to make a story.
# October 29, 2003 2:45 PM

Frans Bouma said:

G. Andrew: the story is that someone got fired because he had a picture of some G5's on MS' campus on his blog.

If an employer wants to fire an employee because of that in The Netherlands the judge handling this case (that's right, it requires a judge) will laugh his ass off :) (and of course will not allow the employer to fire the employee).
# October 29, 2003 3:41 PM

Dave said:

No Frans, the story is someone got fired for... no following well-known security policies that have been spelled out for quite some time.

Publicly posting pictures from a private workplace? Seems MS is only doing what MOST business entities do - make it clear it's a no-no and cause for dismissal.

G. Andrew had it perfectly correct. If the pic was of them receiving not-yet-for-sale Dell PCs, he'd have been canned just the same - but not slashdotted.
# October 29, 2003 3:48 PM

Randy H. said:

Andrew, I also think that it is a bit exaggerated, but anything that gets Slashdotted can get out of hand pretty quickly. I think that's what the person was referring to. We'll see if this builds over the next few days or so. Dave- I agree with you policy. If the policy is violated then a person has to live with the consequences. Still, I think it is a good reminder to people that blogs are not a "safe haven" to make these kinds of mistakes.
# October 29, 2003 4:41 PM
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