If you remember one thing today to help keep your job and help you stay on top of your game, remember this:
Excuses don’t matter. What matters are results.
It’s an epidemic. They are everywhere. Don’t be that guy. Stop making excuses, and just go get results.
Over two hundred years ago, a bunch of really smart guys in bad wigs drafted and eventually adopted a Bill of Rights to limit the power of federal government and ensure the protection of what they saw as fundamental liberties of the people. The freedom of speech became the First Amendment, adopted on December 15, 1791.
To the Founding Fathers, I raise a glass. Freedom of speech is a great thing. I’m also a huge fan of the Second Amendment (right to bear arms) in case I eventually have a daughter. But anyway, I digress…
I am also a huge Dilbert fan. I like it for the same reason that I think the office is a great show, and similar to why I have Office Space in my DVD collection: I find all three to be really funny because there is a shred of truth in their skits and jokes, and that makes it relevant. At some point in our careers, there are things about our jobs that really suck. Sometimes those things are bosses or coworkers. Maybe it’s a particularly difficult clients, or an annoying policy. Some of these people and things will be borderline ridiculous, to the point of being funny (like when in my first job my boss asked me to write down on his white board the three things I found to be most annoying about him. Not a good situation to be in during your first review, or ever).
In any case, you know what isn’t funny? Getting fired. Especially for saying something stupid, including disclosing company sensitive information, on your blog, Facebook, or anywhere else that is public and readily available to your employer. Say it with me: My employer is monitoring social media. My employer is monitoring social media. My employer…. you get the point.
In August 2009, Proofpoint released a study that found 18 percent of the companies surveyed had investigated a data loss event via a blog or message board in the past 12 months. 17 percent disciplined an employee for violating blog or message board policies and nearly 9 percent reported terminations related to those activities. The study also found that there was almost a 50 percent increase in exposure incidents over social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn (17 percent compared to 12 percent in 2008), and eight percent reported terminating an employee for these violations.
There’s a new market out there for companies like Teneros, who is developing software-as-a-service products that automate the process of examining employee activity on social networking sites. Don’t believe me? Check out this article on Network World. As social media continues to explode, companies are becoming more and more keen on keeping their finger on the pulse… listening to the conversation so that they can be quicker to react and proactively impact consumer and employee satisfaction in a positive way. Your company’s customer feedback is out there, and so is your griping and complaining about the boss who takes credit for your work and pawns it off as his own or your comments about how your company’s vacation plan sucks so you just call in sick whenever you want. In college? You are at risk as well. As you graduate and join the large pool of job seekers potential employers will be ‘Googling’ you, reading your tweets, and checking out your keg-stand pictures online.
So the next time your boss asks you if you are using your proper TPS reports just take your medicine and don’t start ranting on Twitter. You may have freedom of speech, but you are likely employed ‘at will’….well, used to be employed.
Today’s guest post is from Eric Leist, a Public Relations major in Boston University’s class of 2010. Eric blogs over at Meghan Biro’s firm Talent Culture and on his own blog, EricLeist.com ————————————————— You’ll never figure out what’s wrong with me. Am I lazy? Arrogant? Rude? I’m an enigma. A puzzle waiting to be solved. [...]
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