Walled Garden Redux

To continue the last post's discussion about the absence of walled gardens on the Internet -- places where people can be unfettered and free, Mrs. Lipschitz, and say or post or do whatever they want without fear of consequence, I present this.

Had a reporter working for me posted this, I probably would not have fired her. I would have cautioned her about the fact that her "private life" doesn't exist on the Internet, and that it doesn't matter that she posted what she did on her own time.

No. 10 on her list: "I've stolen mail and then put it back. (maybe)" No. Just no. That's a felony, chickie. And journalistically unethical.

And shallow. But that's par for the course. That she's a rookie reporter who's underpaid, well, welcome to the journalism business. Get some more time under your belt, move to a bigger market, and maybe -- just maybe mind you -- you'll get more money. But when you say you're in the business to make a difference in the world and then turn around and complain about the pay, well, that's unprofessional. But not a firing offense in my eyes.

Admitting to committing a felony by stealing someone else's mail? Dumb. Just dumb.

From the Today Show article, a pertinent quote from Lindsey Pollak, a career and workplace expert: "I think a lot of younger professionals are so used to posting about their lives on social media that maybe they don't have the same filter as those of us who didn't have that option when we started our careers."

I think it's more that they're used to shouting into an empty room and having nobody there to hear it. I'm a blogger -- I know what it's like. Nobody listens. Until everyone does.

I do post gripes about my job on Facebook. I have written about layoff stress on my blog. But it's always with the understanding that eventually the people I work for -- who hold the purse strings -- will see it, so I'm careful.

Share what you want on the Web. Just realize that people out there are reading it.