Build Date: Wed Mar 11 23:00:14 2026 UTC
Usenet is like junior high school, except it's not as well-lit and it's full of Dutch people.
-- Tjames Madison
Dumbass Fired for Online Dumbassery
2005-02-15 07:38:58
Turns out, posting insider information about your employer lead to your termination. Especially if you've only worked there for less than a month. Duh.
On Valentine's Day, CNN/Money ran the provocatively titled, Have a blog, lose your job?, opening with the sad story of blogger/martyr Mark Jen. The jist is, evil companies are firing all the poor little blogging worker bees for mouthing off on the Intarweb, and that's just plain un-American. Fine, I can get behind that. Fuck the Man.
Turns out, Jen was fired for a little more than just speaking his mind. Although the explanatory post is entitled, The Official Story, Straight from the Source, he really doesn't report exactly why he was fired.
However, there's a hint: "Two days ago we had looked at my blog and removed all inappropriate content - the comments on financial performance and future products."
So, yeah, pretty shocking. Here's my suggested headline for this and all other Mark Jen stories: "Financially Responsible Company Fires New Hire for NDA Violations."
What a dumbass.

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