Surfing the Blogosphere

Category: Misc

Surfing the Blogosphere.

Google fires employee for blogging.

This news is fast spreading in Blogosphere, although the mainstream media isn't concerned by this.

Mark Jen joined Google in the second week of Jan. and left by the month end, apparently fired over blogging about Google on his personal blog.

He blogged about and somewhat sarcastically criticized Google's Benefits plan, which (I suppose) breached the Non-disclosure Agreement (NDA) signed by him. He should have been warned and told to delete the offending posts. Why to make a mountain out of a molehill? A brouhaha out of the blue?

People make mistakes, and a dressing down would have been the best way to tackle this issue. "You've written something, we don't approve of it. Please don't do it again. Thanks very much. Carry on with your work and be careful about what you blog."
That would have settled matters. Why to fire an employee?

Why did Google fire/ease out Mark Jen, the AdSense Product Manager who was at Google for less than two weeks (Jan. 17-28) before being told to leave, apparently over posting on his blog about Google.

Google has always believed in the Don't Be Evil philosophy.
Didn't Google do an Evil thing?

--
As a comment goes on Mark Jen's blog

"It is the job of PR to espouse the glory of your company and the job of HR to keep you well fed."
"When your actions cause other organizations undue work or criticism you become a liability instead of an asset."
--

Because of his posts, Mark Jen became a liability.
He should not have posted so soon, or he should have taken permission to post.

What were the circumstances that led to Mark Jen's leaving Google? Was it personal or did Google tell him to leave beacuse of the posts that he wrote about Google, and as a Google employee?

Has the expectation of delivering results for the Markets got to Google and are they on the path to becoming another heartless Juggernaut?

Google did a wrong thing, my favorite search engine/ company, the coolest place to work in the world, showed that it is Human too and has an Evil side.

Sorry to say, but I'll stick my neck out on this, Google did a wrong thing. They should not have fired/eased out that guy, atleast not so soon. If he left on his own, which isn't the case I suppose, then it's another matter.

Read Mark Jen's Blog.

Google, the coolest company in the world, did an uncool thing.

Let's take that as a mistake and forgive them, but Google is no longer Don't Be Evil. It is a money-minded company on the road to becoming a mega-money-minded, heartless, market-driven Behemoth.

Google should have warned and told Mark Jen that his posting violated SEC norms, if any, and that they'd like him to go easy on blogging about internal matters, and commenting on the work and partying culture. This warning should have been enough, instead of firing the person after twelve days at work.

There are a lot of conflicts arising out of Blogging and Work.
It's time for IT companies to have Blogging policies that define the implications of Blogging from work and about work.

This is the first time I've written something remotely critical of Google in more than a year of Blogging.

Even off-line, whenever there used to be a discussion about Search, Google, Yahoo, MSN, and others I always used to passionately support Google, even when I knew that Yahoo! image searches showed better results than Google's last year.

Google was like, the next best thing after God, and I don't ask much from God, so Google was almost like God, now it's just another company in search of their millions, having put the philosophy of 'Don't be Evil' in a 1000 MB Gmail box saved as backup.

Sorry for writing this, Google. Do something that makes me believe you still adhere to the Don't Be Evil philosophy.

Read more about this story from, for a change, Yahoo News.

Read More about this story.

- ResearchBuzz and check the links from there.
- Google Blogoscoped
- Google's Company Philosophy
- ZDNet suggests blogging employees to ask for 'Blogging Policies'.


This post is tagged as Google, Search, Blog, and Blogging for Technorati Tags.

Whatever, Google is my favorite search engine. I like Google.
Good guys can do some evil things once in a while and one has to forgive them (Google). Good luck to Mark Jen.

Forgive, forget, and move on.

Cheers
Chirayu