"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!"
Lewis Carroll
Long before the Internet existed my old Headmaster drummed a few truths into his students. One was that if you write anything down you have to assume that the world will read it. Of course that was not true literally, but with the Internet it is far more possible now. What he really meant was that once you wrote something you lost control of it's distribution, its readership and how it might be used, not matter how boldly you marked in "PRIVATE" or "CONFIDENTIAL" and caveated it.
He also spoke of "the perversity of inanimate objects", meaning it is strange how often apparently lifeless things (and I include the written word here) will negatively affect you.
These were lessons I forgot to my peril more than once in my early career. I now find myself chuckling when advice from HR professionals is not to write this down (including emails) if you are in any form of disciplinary or difficult negotiation with staff. Emails can and have been used in the prosecution (in all senses of the word) of these matters.
I had been intending to blog on this subject following a recent conversation with my god-daughter. She is just heading to university to study, amongst other things, politics. I raised the question of Facebook, Twitter, etc. and gently reminded her to be be careful what she posted as it will persist on some database, accessible by some search engine, possibly forever. As a result, it is likely to surface at the most inopportune or embarrassing moment in her future career, whatever that may be.
The trigger today was an article in The Times about a teenager who wrote an abusive email to President Obama. Now, with FBI and Police involvement, he is banned from (ever?) entering the USA. While I and others think this is a gross over-reaction - what happened to free speech and a sense of proportion? - it is also a great example of the unforeseen consequences of "writing something down".
I have certainly found myself self-censuring in my posts here. A good number of things I might post about I have decided against. The dangers were illustrated to me a good few years ago when my boss observed an employee I had recently hired was blogging in work time. This was before blogging was common place. My boss brought it to my attention because when he reviewed the blog my employee had made comments about me. I think the post has been erased now, but as I recall it opined that I did not know as much as I thought I did and made some comment about being pompous.
A few of my colleagues thought I should call him out on it, but I didn't and never have. I decided that he was entitled to his opinion and that now i knew watt he thought I was better informed. What was calling him on it expected to achieve? We subsequently worked closely together for over three years and indeed are still colleagues and I believe we are friends with some mutual respect. Then again who knows? I certainly have not wasted effort or sleep trying to locate any more current posts.
As a parent one does one's best to prepare your children to live in the real world. Along with skills, one tries to impart some wisdom and this evening I shall show the article to my daughter and hope some of the implications register. I know her generation use these mediums differently to mine and indeed the older generations are frequently shocked. It may be that future recruiters or assessors will work to different standards and be more understanding and tolerant of the more "unusual" postings, but that cannot be banked upon.
All I can do is hope I have warned my daughter about this particular Jabberwock.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Well said :)
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