As lines between employees and employers continue to become blurred between who can do what when, firing someone in a complex social networking environment makes this economic downturn much more challenging for everyone.

If you have ever been fired, then you know that that the first instinct is to pick up that computer and blog about every single misdeed that your former employer ever did. When you are fired you are not thinking rationally, and the desire for revenge for this is going to be running around in your mind. Social networking brings a lot more power to this concept, where a firing can become a public messy process. Flameouts are not new; we have seen them before once with Zed and once with Blognation. Social networking however, and the prevalence that we use those social tools to help ourselves underscores why the right way to deal with being fired is to be the adult in the room.

Yes, you want to flame your company, yes you want to talk about your pointy haired boss, how the company will never go anywhere, but think through the anger and work on what you want to do for your next job. Take a couple of days off, no not touch the keyboard, and watch Jerry Springer, Steve Wilkos, and Maury, back away from the keyboard. You might want to work on your resume, that is a good thing, but do not post it for a couple of days. Read it after a quick two-day break, and make sure that it says what you want it to say first.

The reason for backing away from the keyboard is to make sure you do not axe your next career move. Employers will go out and look at your blog; they will Google your name and your email address. They will find everything you write, and they will use that to determine if you should be hired. If you go on a tirade on your blog, even if you pull it down, Google will keep a copy of it for you, and your next employer to find.

While it seems that no one should have to say this, when you get the layoff notice, it is very difficult to keep your sense of balance. But there is also the ex employer part of the deal as well. Ex employers are going to go troll blogs as well looking to see what is being said about them. Michael Specht brings up about 20 excellent points on the social aspect of being fired, that employers will want to read. From the employer viewpoint, you really want to pay attention to number 7.

Don’t get into a online publishing war over the smallest of things published, sometimes ignoring it is the best option. The more times search engines find a topic the higher they rank it in the results. Also bloggers tend to react quickly and harshly don’t give them additional fuel to write about. Source: Michael Specht

Yes, your ex employees are going to blog about the job, their old co-workers, but if they are smart they will not. Given the flame out scorched earth approach to getting fired is going to happen amongst some, you have to absolutely make sure you do not get into a flame war with the ex employee. You do not even want to do a DMCA take down unless it really is sensitive confidential information. You really, as the employer just want to leave this one alone.

This is going to be interesting because there was not the prevalence or the acceptance of social networking tools the last time the technology industry had a big layoff. The tools are going to be used, and from both viewpoints, everyone has the right to their opinion, but as a blogger, you want to make sure you do not mess up your next opportunity by blogging when you are still mad. For an employer, expect your ex employees not to like you very much, and they will be talking about it.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

About the Author: Dan Morrill has been in the information security field for 18 years, both civilian and military, and is currently working on his Doctor of Management. Dan shares his insights on the important security issues of today through his blog, Managing Intellectual Property & IT Security, and is an active participant in the ITtoolbox blogging community.