Sometimes an employee or ex-employee can create some fuss by blogging about either his current or former employer. A recent posting from the Sydney Morning Herald discussed the possible need to review employee blogs as part of the background checks conducting for current employees and job candidates as well.
The article cites one Google employee who wrote a little too much about his job at the company. It was more than Google was comfortable with, and the blogger was gone soon after. And then of course there are the disgruntled employees who post derisive content about their current and former employers. Either they were fired, passed up for a promotion, or in some way perceived a slight that caused them to talk out of school. Of course, the trouble with the cyber world is content has a longer shelf life than a Hostess Twinkie, and negative input can be embarrassing or even destructive to the employer.
Then, too, there is the legal issues of defamation, libel and slander, should the positing contain assertions that just aren’t true. It’s fair to say that no employer wants to hire a candidate who is willing to break the law.
So the point of the article is that in addition to your regular preemployment screening, it is wise to include any blog sites as part of your review. You may want to search under the candidate’s name, and then search for his association with past employers that may also be listed in the search engines. Any candidate dissing his former employers or, as they used to say in blues talk, putting their business out on the street, is far from your ideal employment candidate. In fact, it may be trouble and even more trouble just waiting to happen. In your office.
Check them out before you hire.