Flogging Bloggers
Heather Hamilton, an LA-based Web designer, was fired from her job late last month for posting negative comments about her employer in her blog. According to the Feb. 26 entry in Dooce.com, someone anonymously emailed executives at Hamilton's company, telling them that she'd posted critical comments about the organization on her Web site.

Hamilton goes on to ask some very insightful questions about the interplay between her personal and professional lives, particularly on the Web:

Should I lose my job over what I have written on my personal Web site, especially if I have made sure not to mention specific places, persons, or events by name?

At what point does my personal Web site, regardless of what I've published on the site, affect my professional life? If I am not responsible for the two colliding (meaning, an anonymous person tips off my employer that I run a personal weblog), is it right that my employer should condemn me for expressing personal dissatisfaction? Would it be any different if someone found a notepad on which I had scribbled things about my job and turned it in to my boss?

I've been considering similar questions this week because of Fast Company's Web feature on blogging, which links to Media Diet because I'm a staffer there. Traffic here has gone up as a result, and I'm curious what FC readers and regulars think of my personal media- and popcult-related side projects.

While Hamilton continued to analyze her situation in her Feb. 27 entry and pokes fun at termination letters, you'll be happy to know that now that Hamilton has more free time, she's back in stride, cleaning her apartment and considering serious matters such as, well, defecation and gender differences.