apparently china isn't the only country that believes in censorship. today the powers that be informed me they've stumbled across my blog. this did not come as a shock since my site meter shows hits coming in from cities where our corporate offices are located. what did come as a shock was the request to stop blogging. however, isn't there a little thing known as the first amendment? personally my favorite amendment, since i'm a very vocal and opinionated person.
they're not pleased with this post, among others. though, i've never blogged the name of the company, or even the industry i work in. for all you know i could be working in fast food--but, i'm not. i guess negative fodder isn't great for a publicly traded company. it's the stuff i'm not blogging they should worry about, because that stuff would make for a great read.
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(Courtesy of Cottonsox Photography)
...the only way out is through.
Sarah Bellum
(Courtesy of Cottonsox Photography)
Tales of Wit and Charm
- Sarah Bellum
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62 comments:
I've long been worried about what the "powers that be" would think if they stumbled across my blog.
Was it a request to stop blogging or a demand? How seriously are you taking it?
Whatever you do, don't stop...if you can help it.
I'm emailing you a name of a local attorney. You should speak to someone.
I for one would be upset if you stopped blogging. In fact I'd be willing to contribute towards your legal costs if you should choose to take that route. I have a hunch a lot of your readers would. You might not be aware of your local fan base, but you'll be looked after.
Bellum,
I too am emailing you a list of legal counsel. Explain your dilemna and chances are they'll do it pro-bono. This will hit the media, especially with your popularity.
Do these poor saps have any idea what kind of press they're about to encounter?
If there is anything I can do, please don't hesitate to ask. I'll include my contact info in the email.
Good luck and continue blogging,
James
Don't you dare take this sitting down. Fight them. Sue them. The first amendment is not to be taken lightly.
Call my station, or any of the stations in the city.
I will not be emailing you a list of legal professionals, nor do I posess any special media powers. However, I do agree that this should not be tolerated. Being told you can't blog is like being told you can't knit or bake cookies in your spare time either.
I check the blog daily and enjoy it immensely. I know for a fact that you have a ton of readers and fans, even international ones who would be very, very disappointed if anyone put a stop to your candid and hilarious blogging.
I love your blog, Sarah, and I seriously think that you have every right to blog when and what you want.
~Dana
That is such bullshit!! How do they even dare ask that? Isn't that a major lawsuit? I can't believe this.
im pretty sure my life couldn't go on without your blog! Stupid powers that be.. first they are messing with hellmouths.. and now you!
If you stopped, how else would other SAHM's like myself feel the joy and excitement of having the door opened, if it be ever so slightly, to the life that we sometimes long for over spilled milk, permanent marker on the wall, and all nighters tending to a sick child.
Albeit quite selfish of me, but my feelings nonetheless.
Plus, you totally rock at what you do and are happy as hell doing it. Don't you dare stop.
Sarah,
The Colorado Ski Industry is behind you!
Errr, not that it's much help.
I agree, you should definitely fight it. Your blogs always brighten my day and bring a fresh and interesting outlook on life. Don't let THE MAN stop you.
Like the rest of the band wagon, I say you fight it. The corporate fight is not easy either. I am surprised though that they don't recognize your fame from here has actually landed you a weekly spot in the local newspaper.
Oh Sarah...
Please don't stop blogging!
You're words are often the highlight of my day!
Love you
xoxo*
Total bullshit! What's next? They'll tell you what you can and cannot eat for dinner?
Tell them to go to hell and call the papers.
I linked over here through Ethan's site. Fight the fight Sarah. You've got an entire blogging community behind you.
I don't have a blog but if I did I'd repost this ASAP. To all you bloggers, repost her message!
I'll contribute $100 towards your attorney fees. Set up paypal and I'm sure others will help.
Anyone want to match my offer?
Let me guess, the guys who talked to you were both named Bob? Did you file a TPS report on it?
The ludicrousness of the modern office knows no bounds, I suppose.
I can't match the $100 but I'll give you half that.
Why don't you look for real ad sponsorship on your blog? Dooce did it, I'm sure you can too. Utah can house all the good blogs! QUIT!
BLOODY BRITISH BASTARDS!
No, no, NO! You can't stop blogging! I would surely wither away into nothing without my unrelated twin. We need all the recovering mormon, single thirty somethings we've got!
Utter nonsense you can't tell a person what they can write about. It's like a journal they can't regulate that either.
Fight it for sure!
Call our Business desk. We'd love to run a feature about this.
Thanks
How can they regulate what you blog?
I think that sounds iffy. Take up some of this cash people are offering and get a lawyer. I'll give you 20.
Sara,
You have jepordized your employment outside of the first ammendment. Yes, you can fight the first ammendment and probably win a very long drawn out discrimination suit if your pockets are deep enough to endure the process. The other issues you cannot win, they will not terminate you based on the first ammendment issue, though that maybe the basis for the decision to terminate. By the way, I work with a great guy you need to meet. Call and we will discuss either issue. Ben has my number. Best of all.
Uncle Cabbage Patch
SB,
It never fails to amaze me how stupid management can be. I guess that is what keeps me in demand.
"POOR MANAGEMENT MAKES FOR STRONG UNIONS"
I think its time the workers come together to stand for their rights. Let me know if I am welcome to come to the property and start the organizing.
what is going on? i've been to the uk several times and none of the british have ever been stodgy like that! are your employers still bitter we dumped their tea in the harbor 300 years ago and want to take it out on you all of the sudden?
come on, whoever you are! go have a few pints, relax, and let things be!
I hate small minds. You blog on!!!
You have my support Sarah.
Quit. You should be writing full-time anyhow. One column per week isn't enough Sarah time.
I think The City Weekly would be interested in your talents.
I agree with newsman. Get Gephardt. And I could if you need me to.
What happens if you continue to express your feelings about your job? Did they suggest what may happen if you keep blogging?
If you can't vent on your personal blog where can you?
How is talking about work stuff online any different than discussing it at a bar with friends?
Looks like the consensus is to hit the media with it. I'd suggest pointing the option out to the company. I can't imagine any company would want bad press. They may be located elsewhere but if they do have an office here they'll want to stay out of the press.
Do they have any idea how popular your blog is?
I'd be interested to see how many hits you get over this.
I've already seen this reposted. God bless bloggers.
WOW. Perhaps you already knew, but I think this post (and the subsequent comments) is evidence of the following you have. Keep it up Sarah.
Save our Macs! Save our Bloggers!
You need to quit, or better yet let the tea guzzling fools fire you.
As others have pointed out you should be writing more.
I for one would be more than happy to see you add sponsership on this site. I'd go to the ads daily. I think after this fiasco everyone else would support you in doing the same.
This will turn into a huge public relations media stink if they go forward with anything. You have the First Amendment and a ton of support behind you. I'm sure you'll come out smelling like a dozen pink roses.
Funny but I've been reading your blog for a year, and I have no idea what you do at said job. You've mentioned the time spent there. From what I remember it was 9 or 10 years. Don't they owe you something for a decade of work?
I'm assuming your good at whatever you do since you've been there so long. Let them suffer without you. With your obvious pull, it shouldn't be any trouble finding a new job.
If I had something I'd hire you. There's got to be one of your readers hiring. Anyone, anyone, going once, going twice?
Hire our Bellum! But let her blog sometimes too ;)!!!
Good luck Sarah. I read your blog daily and would be sad to see it go.
If you like your job and want to stay (which it sounds like you don't) you could always go blog anonymously. Lots of people are doing that when forced with signing a no blog cause in their work employment agreement.
You might want to take a look at your company policies and see what is said about blogs.
Post your resume on your blog. Shouldn't take long to get snatched up. Looks like you have a lot of fans. Just make sure you can remain blogging. Our boring corporate jobs provide us with bleak days so your blog is a highlight.
It's been mentioned again and again but there's a reason. Go to the media with this. Doesn't matter how serious the request was, it will soon be forgotten in order to hush you.
Am I the only one who wants to know what the things you aren't blogging are?
OH Sarah - your blog is like my daily coffee. Don't stop! Don't stop!
Sarah,
Your blog is too popular to go away. Too bad we don't know the company you work for, maybe we could hire someone to "take care" of the situation. (I'm kidding).
You have my support!
You know where I work, maybe we can get your Uncle to help out.
bellum,
you know you've got my support.
Booooo! I guess this explains your less than jovial mood last night. :)
I can't imagine that the big ol' Coach would have a problem about this??
Hell, wasn't this blog a big reason the Trib wanted you?
Dear New British Company Owners:
(Since you are obviously aware of this blog space.)
I've known Sarah for some time now. You haven't. I've had her in my home. You haven't.
She was one of the very first employees of the company you recently bought. Are you aware of her contribution to the value of the company you bought? I think not. If you should succeed in managing her out the door, the business you bought will suffer.
She isn't hurting you, nobody knows who you are, or even what industry you're in, and apparently the support here shows that you stand to lose a fair amount of community friendliness by sending her out the door for this blog.
Are you people DAFT? Is it customary to seek control of employees lives, both inside AND outside of the workplace?
It's not customary here, and you're making a mistake, on all sorts of fronts.
Now, kiss and make up.
Thank you.
Hi sarah I will support you! this ones kinda hard for me to read though? I mean understand
Wait, that's french...shit. I suppose the next best alternative is to burn the Union Jack in front of the British Pantry. (I wonder if Orrin gets all twisted in a bunch if the UJ were burned, or is it only the stars & stripes?) Anyway, I hope the blog love at least has you feeling a bit better today.
As the other lawyers probably told you (and what most people fail to realize), your 1st amendment prevents only the gov't from trying to muzzle you. In our glorious at-will employment system most employers can fire anyone for any reason at any time. I'd start duplicating and keeping hard copies of all evaluations and comments, especially positive ones and those since the norman conquest, although the further back you can document your performance the easier it will make an argument of your habitual, crunchy goodness as an employee. If someone provides a positive verbal comment, send that person an email thanking them for the comment and repeating the comment as close to verbatim as possible in the text, and then print the message out. Keep the work quality and chipper attitude up at the office, as painful as it may be - if you're interested in keeping the job. If not, depending on the circumstances, a Bridge Over the River Qwai style immolation is always pleasing at the visceral level. Since you have never id'd the company and only made secondary reference to the industry it'd be hard for them to say that you were sullying their reputation. At best, you'd have a potential wrongful termination lawsuit - unfortunately, that'd probably be very expensive to fight, although it'd provide excellent fodder to keep the conflict alive and the company's name associated with bad publicity in your blog and the media, always a useful bit of leverage. (We do have a couple of good attys here at my firm, though, that I could introduce you to.)
The best bet, I think, is to keep the references scrupulously clean, as you have. I suspect that since they are reading the blog, one look at all the posts and the obvious media implications would give anyone with half a brain serious reason to pause before doing anything stupid.
Buena suerte (good luck)!
Sarah-
Standing firmly behind you. Should you call a press conference, drop me a line.
Heck, I think we should hold a press conference.
Just don't quit your job! Or your blog!
-Bob
P.S. - My blog looks terrible in pink.
Censorship sucks.
Fight for what's right Sarah.
I'm behind you.
-pants
Sarah,
I don't think "the powers that be" realize who they're up against. You are an amazing writer. To be cliche, you've touched others through your talent in writing.
Silly, they think that by telling you to take this down you'll be under the radar never to have your words surface again?
You have loyal followers and admirers. This is ludacris...
Bellum,
Bad press is bad press, no matter how large or small a company is.
With your media connections you should be able to make a stink and hopefully come to an agreement.
Best of luck,
Al
I wouldn't work for a company with that sort of policy -- no matter what they pay.
Sarah,
I am 150% behind you. I can not imagine having the ability to express my thoughts and opinions in a forum of support and respectful debate.
I say take up the folks who have offered to help, and make sure to call the media.
Brits are known for their uptight personalities. Here is proof of that.
Long live free speech!
FUCK THAT COMPANY!! I WILL PERSONALLY MAKE SURE THAT THIS DOES NOT GO UNTOLD!!! THIS WILL CREATE SUCH A MEDIA STINK FOR THOSE DUMBASSES!!
--i'm sure to get flamed for this--
Bloggers get Dooced all the time. .. and it's perfectly legal. Mainly because their blog is related and or sanctioned by their work.. I don't post anything particular to work or clients on my blog for this reason.
Legal counsel really won't help all that much either. There are lists and lists of people who have been Dooced. (just google it people.)
Business is a big world. And your first amendment rights allow you to speak your mind, and it also allows employers to fire you for it.
I love you Sarah, and I hope to hell you keep blogging, and keep your job. But.. c'mon, do you really feel your employer doesn't have the right to mention things you've said that they don't approve of when your blog is pretty much tied directly to your column? ..
Obviously, it would be a bad decision on their part to really do anything.. but still.
I hope all this works out for you though. :(
The first 'reported' blogger to get fired for things she said on her blog:
I started this website in February 2001. A year later I was fired from my job for this website because I had written stories that included people in my workplace. My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID. Never write about work on the internet unless your boss knows and sanctions the fact that YOU ARE WRITING ABOUT WORK ON THE INTERNET. If you are the boss, however, please don’t be a bitch and talk with your hands. And when you order Prada online, please don’t talk about it out loud, you rotten whore
I never read your blog (unless I show up in it, of course), but I firmly stand behind your continuing to do so. Can you, eh, start a new, more positive one? Or is that exactly what The Man would want?
Damn the man! DAMN THE MAN!!
wow! that sucks! i can understand your company being upset if you were publicly bashing them, but i'd bet the majority of your readers don't even have a clue who you work for, and those that do are the ones you'd be just as likely to bitch about work with in person. seems awfully silly to me!
I'm sorry you're having problems. Hang in there, you have an entire city behind you. We love our little Sarahbellum!
I say you quit and then bring them down with all that information you haven't written about that they should be worried about! I'm sure you could support your Starbuck's habit on a fast food job! :)
What happens if you don't stop blogging?
I vote you quit and sell ad space on your blog. Controversery sells.
It sounds to me like it might be time to "Get Gephardt"
Your blog is one of the hippest and coolest blogs out there. And if it were to be wiped from cyber space the internet would lose all meaning. Sure, I speak with hyperbole, but it is a necessary trope to illustrate the point that your blog must stay!
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