Somebody's Watching Me

Somebody's Watching Me - Rockwell

I'm just an average guy with an average life
I work from nine to five, hey hell I pay the price
But I want is to be left alone in my average home
But why do I always feel like I'm in the Twilight Zone

I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
And I have no privacy
I always feel that somebody's watchin' me
Is it just a dream?

---

Why is no surprise that people just don't understand? The link above is a BBC article about a Scotsman who got fired for blogging about his employer. I originally heard the story on NPR.

The other day, I got a spam message that said, "Is your website registered on Google?"

The trouble with this inquiry is that no website is "registered" on Google. That's just not how it works. Google bases its searches on "bots" -- a program that runs silently on a server -- running on servers situated around the world. These bots poll websites for updated data. The more often a site updates the more these bots will visit the site for updates. For more on this see Wikipedia.

This is why anyone searching for Anand Trivedi will see that this site is listed first. This is also why its no surprise that the gentleman's employer was able to find his blog and read about his "Evil Boss."

Maybe the lack of understanding of how the Internet (or internets) works is driving this lack of restraint.

However, this does bring up another issue: Should this guy have been fired? One could claim that one should not be disciplined by one's employer for what one does on one's own time. This is one of the arguments posed by an analyst on NPR.

Although I agree one's personal affairs should not be infringed by one's employer, I believe when it comes to representing the company, one must not slander the image of their employer.

I'm a consultant for my company and I interact with our customers on a daily business. I feel that I am a representative from my company and represent the views and believes of that company. Despite any personal feelings, dislikes, or grudges I may or may not have, I must portray the company in the highest regards in front of the customer. Whether this is on site, on the phone, or at a bar sharing drinks, I represent my company.

If I were to use this blog to slander my company, it would be my companies responsibility to make sure that I no longer represented the company. So MAC and AJC, if you read this, our company is great!