Heres a question for you all. If you have/start a blog which will be talking about your experiences as a professional should you inform your employer? I've done quite a lot of reading about confidentiality and professionals blogs and the general guidance seems to be a healthy dose of common sense.
I have a "disclaimer" in my "about me" section which attempts to clarify that I am blogging my own views, not those of my employer of my profession. Is that helpful or does it detract from the posts?
I was discussing the joys of blogging with a friend who informed me that the organisation he works for asks that its employees do not blog at all about their work irrespective of the level to which they anonymise it. Is that right? Apparently its so prospective employees, clients and the general public don't read anything negative about the organisation. Seems to be more than a little contrary to the concept of free speech!
For more thoughts on blogging and confidentiality in general take a look at these two posts from top blog Sarah's Musings, firstly "Getting our knickers in a twist" and "An ethics question"
Any thoughts?
Monday, 19 January 2009
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Mmm. It is a delicate area. I really like your disclaimer - I think it is clear and it clarifies that your views are your own. I work in a Government organisation and they have very strict rules about confidentiality, so I am careful to never name the organisation and always talk about what I think, rather than something that happened at work. But I am always conscious to be careful about what I say about the organisation in the public domain.
ReplyDeleteIt's a great discussion point.
Cheers
Helen
Hi
ReplyDeletewhen i first started blogging I wanted it to tie in with my e-portfolio, so I could reflect and at the same time provide evidence I was meet my professional standards. I have realized that as a health professional I am unable to truly reflect on specific scenarios so my blog has become general discussions about my profession. Personally, I dont think my employer needs to know about my blogging. I try to be careful and discuss my practice in general terms.
Hmmm it is a really grey area isnt it. My employer knows about the blog but I'm aware that I'm posting about generic issues rather than specifics (even when sanitised). I'm aware that iit wouldnt be to hard to link my name to the blog and by the nature of my service to link my name to that,
ReplyDelete