Tuesday, November 11, 2003

Fired blogger finds new job

You may recall the story of Michael Hanscom who was fired by Microsoft because of his blog, eclecticism. Well, not because of his blog specifically, but because he published a photo of Apple computers being delivered to Microsoft.

The reason for publishing the photo was fairly obvious: the irony of Microsoft using Apple computers and the Apple OS to do work at Microsoft.

Unfortunately for Michael, Microsoft had no sense of humor about employees blogging what Microsoft considered to be sensitive material. This raised quite a debate among bloggers about the ethics of blogging and whether free speech is infringed by the threat of employer retaliation for what is said in a private blog. Michael himself admits that the post wasn't a very good idea.


Michael Hanscom

Michael now has a new job at a print/copy store. "It's nothing overly glamorous -- no dream job, no mind-bogglingly cool opportunities were dropped into my lap during my week of notoriety -- but it's a good steady job, which I'm quite satisfied with."