WARNING! This is a long post…
When I saw the title of the recent post of Sonnie’s Porch, Get Hired Not Fired For Blogging, it triggered a memory. It was that time I was called by my boss to ask me about my blog entries pertaining to a certain Bratinella.
I was blogging in Bravejournal before. Almost daily, I wrote down entries about my boss whom I called Bratinella for being a brat! I don’t rant to my co-workers. Seldom do I tell them about what I think of my boss or the other bosses around. That’s one tip I have for you, guys. These co-workers can twist your words and make you look like the bad guy. Keep your rants about the boss to yourself. And in my case before, I kept it in my blog. Little did I know that my boss would find out about it.
She went to the US for a global finance meeting of CFOs of the different business units of our company. She left her work and her laptop to me. I couldn’t remember ever opening my blog in her laptop. I was very careful about it. But for some reason, she learned about it a week after she came back from the US. She called me and asked me about my entries.
What can I say? “Hey boss, you are Bratinella! And yes, you are the source of my stress!” I just kept quiet. I told her that it was an online diary and that it was very personal. Not even my close friends knew about it.
She found out about so many things there. That she was the reason the staff were resigning. She was the source of our collective stress and in mine. That she messed with out appetites most of the time. That she was nothing but a pain in the ass! Nope, never once was her name mentioned. But I wrote there that my boss was a major Bratinella! Bull’s eye!
No, I wasn’t fired because of it. But it was very awkward to say the least. She was mad at me and would hide it with a fake smile. I apologized for it. But I reiterated that it was a personal journal that only a few wanderers had read. Still, it was never the same between us. I resigned because I could not stomach the awkwardness anymore.
Sigh.
Moral of the story: If you must rant about your boss, do not put anything that will ultimately point to her as the one you are ranting about!
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 2:57 am
eh kung hindi ba naman sya bratinella eh di sana hindi sya naiblog hahaha. ganun lang talaga yun batobato sa langit ang tamaan wag magalit.
yun nga lang talagang napaka-awkward, parang naiimagine ko how odd.
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 8:37 am
Oh, yeah. I am careful about my rants about workplace and much more my boss!
Anyways, you are doing great on where you are right now!
Congratulations nga pala for this blog.
Go,go,go girl!
on Sep 27th, 2008 at 7:59 pm
This is one of the many, many reasons why I am glad I work for myself. I can rant and rave about whatever on my sites and if it is about my clients and they find it, I can just be all “Yeah, and…?” It’s nice; very comforting.
on Sep 28th, 2008 at 10:04 pm
i have also posted once about my boss because she is also a bratinella! and yeah, i agree with Liza, if she have not behaved like one, di sana sya mai-blog.
on Sep 29th, 2008 at 12:27 am
sa akin naman iba. yung nai blog kung kasamahan na pinoy bumait nang mabasa yung blog ko. kaya lang i need to be careful what to write now about work at baka magsumbong sa management patay ako.
so that was one of the reason na nag resign ka…sigh.
on Sep 30th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
that would have opened her eyes. you can freely blog about her now.
on Oct 2nd, 2008 at 11:07 am
Nyeh. Kakaiba ang experience mo na ‘to.
Ang blog ko never ko naiwento kahit sa pamilya o kung kanino lang. Just the dearest friends who will never mind whatever I have to say.
At least, both of you learned something from this experience. And I hope e magsitigil na sha sa pagbabrat2 niya. (Sus, ke tatanda na natin, magbabrat pa ba…)
on Oct 15th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Ohh, thank you for the link love.
Yes you’re right, our freedom of expression have limits and we must factor in the risks involve.