arbitrary constant

A good friend asked me if I worry that people from work might read my or this blog. Despite knowing for a fact the only people who read this blog and my tweets are my mum (hi mum) and my 7-week-old son, I indulged myself and gave the question some thought.

Of course, there have been a couple of high profile cases where people have been sacked for slagging off their work on their blog (1, 2), or have made a serious gaffe through twitter or some other media network that has caused bad relations with their employer (or potential employer). My view, though, is that I wouldn't write or tweet or say anything that I wouldn't happily say to someone myself in person, to their face. (The same goes, by the way, for emails at work.)

I'm not the sort of person to say anything overtly negative or indiscrete about my employer or boss to someone else. I'm too loyal a person: if I work for an organisation then I throw my heart and soul into it (I don't have more grey hair than I'd want at this age for nothing). So this translates into generally positive posts / tweets / talks about work. Like everyone, I have my frustrations — and here, I suppose, because I'm lucky to be in a senior role in my organisation, I do have to be careful. But the carefulness is in the thought about what I'm going to write or say, not just writing it down and hitting 'send' or blurting it out in a meeting. (I must say, though, it has been a bit of a journey for me to get to this point, and I still have a way to travel!)

And, by people being able to read my blog or my tweets, all of which are clearly fascinating, people at work might get to know me a bit better. This has its down-sides as much as it does its up-sides, but on balance I'd rather be in that position than not.

The wider point here for me is that I don't really believe in a 'work-life balance'. My work has always been in a field that I believe in (e.g. equality at the moment, but more likely in the future to be in public service). So, with me, what you see at work is pretty much what you see outside of work: I don't really draw a distinction. I'm passionate about what I do, I try to be as honest as I can be in what I do, and I enjoy reflecting on it (blogging) or capturing it as I go along (tweeting). If others want to look in on that, they're welcome to and I don't think it compromises my work or integrity.

Filed in General Interest, Media, Personal, Work