September 29, 2007 -
A Nintendo contract employee found herself on the unemployment line recently over too-candid blog postings.As reported by Seattle alternative paper The Stranger, Jessica Zenner was let go by Mario & Co. on August 31st:
Zenner... can now be added to the ever-growing list of casualties in the workplace war on blogs... All they did was participate in the great American pastime: bitching about work
...Zenner says she was never informed of any blog policy at Nintendo, but even so, she wrote under the pen name "Jessica Carr"—although she posted pictures of herself on her site—and never mentioned her employer by name. Somehow, Zenner's bosses at Nintendo still found her site.
Zenner's Inexcusable Behavior blog (NSFW) apparently riled Nintendo executives, in part because of comments Zenner made about co-workers:
She digresses into a wry tirade against one of her bosses: "One plus about working with [a] hormonal, facial-hair-growing, frumpy [woman] is that I have found a new excuse to drink heavily," Zenner writes. "My gut tells me that this woman hasn't been [bleeped] in years.
...Nintendo spokeswoman Perrin Kaplin says Nintendo doesn't bar employees from having blogs, but "we generally don't encourage them." However, contradicting Zenner, Kaplin says, "[Zenner] was expressly discouraged from doing what she did. I've seen everything that she's written and it's really not work appropriate.
Comments
Don't have enough info to say whether or not this was good on Nintendo's part, but hey, this is reality.
I really think this is going too far. Anyone who thinks that an underling hating their boss for whatever reason and subsequently complaining about it is somehow unusual has rose-colored glasses superglued to their eyes.
Names withheld, under an alias, ona private blog? Nintendo should have just kept their noses out of it and their traps shut. I think this is really poor form on their part.
By some of the logic I see here, every person on the site should lose their job since they can bitch about coworkers on there.
It is also this way with the out-of-house testing for Microsoft and Sony.
Yes, blogging can be percieved as public...but what if someone comes to misplace a personally written in journal and a tabloid or some other journalist or WHOMEVER finds it, reads it and makes it public? Would the individual whom wrote it be fired then? What if someone overheard you talking to a friend on the phone about a particular nasty situation at work and just-so-happened to see a logo on your shirt?
I can sum up the direct thoughts of all those scenarios and the course of action that could follow them, as well as plenty of others, with two words: Life happens.
In rebuttal to my previous sentence, "Without chaos we have no order and without order, chaos is doomed.".
Unless the lady was blogging from work, passing along company secrets (which, if I read the article correctly, she wasn't), left the sites up on her computer and/or told fellow co-workers about her blog then I can see of no reason as to why action should have been taken against her.
Thoughts, opinions...it all happens. It's life and to be otherwise would be firing ourselves.
If you don't, then it means that you've got a de facto right to harass and abuse co-workers, and create a really negative place to work, basically getting the ability to force someone to quit. Why should co-workers have that ability where employers don't?
Sadly, it's also (in most places) a 'no-fault' employment country. Which is to say that you can be fired for just about anything but sex, race or religion.
I do, however find that those responsible for grudge-firing someone over what they wrote in their (constitutionally protected, for the time being anyway) newszine.
So, yeah, sad, but I'm on her side -- and any of you that think firing people over their excercise of (constitutionally protected) rights to free speech should take your censoring, prudish, thick skulls to another place to live -- you all make me sick.
Yeah, right.
That being said, Zenner's termination was a little too harsh. A public reprimand, administrative leave, or even a public apology would be fine.
She never named the company or ther coworkers by name but I think it was the photo that did her in. Once someboy could tie the posts with the company that was it. Then it gets around that she is posting about coworkers, insulting posts at that, it can make for a very uncomfortable work enviroment that is not needed. If she had issues with folks she needed to deal with them directly, not insult and whine about them to the entire world.
It shows very poor tact in my opinion.
...Of course it's not work appropriate. It's a BLOG, not an internal memo. Unless she used company resources to write the blog, I don't see how that argument has any merit.
Have there been any employees who have taken their former employers to court over a decision to terminate them based on the content in their blog? If not, I might try bitching about work myself and see if I can't get the ball rolling.
Nintendo spokeswoman Perrin Kaplin says Nintendo doesn't bar employees from having blogs, but "we generally don't encourage them."
Like work should have that much of a bearing over someone's personal life that they wouldn't have a blog unless it was encouraged.
Sex isn't work appropriate either, but it's still allowed in the off time.
I think in the next couple of years we're going to be seeing an incress in Lible suits targeting blog authors for this very reason
But then isn't a great American pastime bitching about your job? Sorry, but i'm on her side.
If she was being bitchy about people online, chances are she was no joy to be around at work either. She may have been done in by complaints by her coworkers.
Freedom of Speech does not mean freedom from the consequences of choosing your words poorly ... or publishing them where the world can see.
She has her rights to express herself but Nintendo has a right to protects it’s self and it’s employees.
Freedom of Speech doesn't only not mean freedom from consequences, it doesn't even vaguely apply here.. this is a private company who found out one of their employees was publicly, and offensively, discussing problems with coworkers outside their workplace.. if Zenner had kept her comments private between friends, it would not have happened, instead she decided to post them on the internet for all to see.
@Jim
Very good advice.
@rdeegvaini
Employers do NOT have the ability nor the right to intrude on their employees' private lives. Blogs are not private. They can be (and are) read by anyone at anytime, including your employer.
@BlackIce, Leftie
Bitching about your job is one thing. Making a comment like what Zenner did and posting it on an outlet in which anyone can see is not a smart move.
I wanna dissagree with you about it not applying here but alas, I really can't come up with a good counter argument. However I can say this, The First Amendment was made so that people could activily partisapate in the political proscess. This rule also applys to our jobs, we have the freedom of saying that a certian person is whorable at their jobs and should be fired from it or openly say that they are getting treated diffrently because of something.
I still feel that Nintendo is in the right with this becase she was attacking a person not on their work habbits but on the fact that the person may have not gotten some action in their private life. That violates the 5th amendment there.
So overall I guess I'm agreeing with you!
It's also true that such open speech has been abused as well. While individuals have opened their hearts and minds to the public, others have used such open speech to intentionally cause harm. One example has been the dontdatehimgirl.com type of sites where anonymous individuals can make all sorts of accusations, true or false, and not be held responsible for even the false accusations.
But at the same time, venting criticism about others has been denied and allowed stressful situations to build out of cotnrol.
So it has proven to be difficult to create a fair, neutral stance on such Public speech.
Nightwng2000
NW2K Software
Shouldn't of posted it if you weren't ready to deal with the consequences. :P
I guess I should shut up now - heaven knows I'll be jobseeking somewhere down the line, some HR lackey will read this, and I'll be blacklisted and end up "living in a van down by the river."
What do you think will happen if your employer finds out that you hate your job and your workmates or superiors? On-the-spot dismissal may be a bit harsh, but they're not going to be expected to overlook it. You work *for* a company, not just in the same building as it. What she did was insubordinate and would have easily been reason for A Talk.
If you really do hate working for a particular company and moan about it on the intertron, then you might not have to endure them for too long.
For the most part I can relate. Pretty much ever since the advent of globalization and the decline of unions we (employees) have been steadily losing ground in the workplace as companies demand more and more, and give less and less. Don't misunderstand me, I'm NOT - (capital) advocating the return of unions. That's a grade A example of exchanging one set of problems for another.
What I do, however resent, is companies treating their workforces poorly and then playing victim-theater at the least little thing their employees might do.
(sigh)
Honestly, I don't have a solution, but I can't help but notice the article said "contractor" at Nintendo. My instinct say they probably expected her to give more loyalty then they were willing to return.
Well, when you have a bad one, yes. You and I have had bad jobs with terribly hostile working environments. But she worked at Nintendo as a CONTRACTOR, making a huge salary no doubt. So no, I don't think she could get away with it.
Imagine tellin your Major to his face what you thought of him. Would you still be in that unit afterwards? Probably not.
I am sure that breaks some laws of some kind but WTF its not like corporations follow them anyway, nothing like lobbying to lobotomize regulation..
The rules in the Brit Army are a bit different to the US. But I don't fight for Britain anymore, so that's okay. But I still fight.. Anyway..
Uhm... so I think my point is that she has a right to free speech and all..
Its very intresting if you wanna to check it out.
The subject of if its right or wrong to fire some one over a blog is kind of hard to come up with a sound argument on ether side.
I think Nintendo should have ordered a cease and desist or just deal with the problem directly instead of giving the pink slip.
She gave up her anonymity (did I spell that right?) as soon as she put her picture up. I have no sympathy for her; you have to be responsible. And if you are not, then, what happens happens. She wasn't responsible because she gave her identity, whether she knew it or not, and got punished for it. Sure, maybe a firing is a little harsh, but oh well. She seems rich, so maybe she can affort it.
Companies fire people all the time from not doing their work to doing it to well to infighting with staff and other reasons this is no worse than anything else but they need to protect themselfs from people suing them from being fired wrongly thus they need to state on paper where the line is and not pull it from their ass.
People should be able to speak their minds with out fear for persicution, yes there comes concequinces with speaking ones mind however the person shouldn't have to fear loosing their jobs. In my opinion there is nothing diffrent from fireing some one over a flamatory blog then to fire some one because they didn't vote for Bush. Its not a rediculos reach here because your using the same logic to defend the company fireing the person. If every one in the office voted for Bush then there would be no drama in the office place plus a vote for Bush is good for the company becasue he's in our back pocket. If you vote for Kerry then you should suffer the concequince of your actions.