Dooced: The new pink slip
Getting fired for talking about work on her blog helped Heather Armstrong find her perfect career path
By Sara Grace McCandless
Published: October 13th, 2005 | 3:06pm
Nearly every article about office etiquette will warn that you should never write anything on work e-mail that you wouldn’t be prepared to distribute company-wide. In theory, it’s true: you might not like it, but technically, your computer is work property and you can be held accountable for anything you say, transmit, or view while using it (so long, lunchtime porn surfing!). I still cringe when I think about the number of e-mails I’ve sent that would not, shall we say, bode well if posted on the break-room bulletin boards next to the state employment law notices and that HR memo dated 1997. Regardless, like so many others I assured myself that any of the higher-ups I’d ever worked for would not have the time or desire to monitor and sift through the thousands of weekly e-mails that travel to and from my inbox.
But what are the rules of jurisdiction when it comes to what you say about work outside of the office? And what if you were to go beyond the happy-hour bitch sessions with your closest work comrades and take it to an online arena, such as a discussion forum or blog? Would your words and thoughts be considered slander or just the ramblings of a disgruntled worker, protected by freedom of speech?
<img alt="dooce.jpg" src="http://venuszine.com/stories/dooce.jpg" width="250" height="293" align="left" hspace="5" />“Don’t do it,” advises Heather Armstrong, and she should know – she was fired for it.
The Memphis native had relocated to Los Angeles when she launched a personal blog in February 2001 known as Dooce.com. The name transpired from her use of “dude” in IM coupled with her tendency to type the word too quickly. “I turned to the website to deal with how miserable (my job) was making me,” she explains, then working as a web designer. Originally, Armstrong figured she’d tell a few friends about it, and that her writing would mostly cater to this inner circle. Her online persona developed quickly, providing frank, hilarious commentary about life in the City of Angels, peppered with language that easily qualified for an “R” rating.
A year later, office management became aware of the blog – and not by accident. “I still don’t know to this day who turned me in,” Armstrong admits, speaking of the narc that used a generic e-mail address to contact all of the senior executives – and had the balls to cc Armstrong on it as well. “I don’t know if it was someone I worked with or not.”
At first, Armstrong received a reprimanding but remained gainfully employed. But upon the return of a VP who had been absent when the Dooce storm first hit, the consequences turned from a stern warning into an immediate dismissal. “I couldn’t even walk back to my desk to get my purse without an escort. It was made very clear to me that the website was the reason I was fired. “
Dooce.com certainly included missives about her job, but all of the related entries were fairly generic. “I never mentioned anyone by name, or company,” she points out. On top of that, during its first year Dooce included numerous postings on completely unrelated topics – dating, celebrities, and earthquakes. Armstrong’s work-related satire popped up every now and then just as they would in a conversation with a friend – which apparently was enough to get the boot.
She is often asked why she didn’t pursue any legal recourse in the matter. ”It wasn’t worth it,” she declares with great certainty. At the time, she likely would’ve entered an expensive uphill battle ending in loss – the rules of the information superhighway and rights of users remain very blurry in these areas. But the power of the Internet quickly became evident as word about Armstrong’s dismissal surged until her server crashed after receiving too many hits. Soon, she was fielding interview requests from media outlets such as NPR and Good Morning America, and “dooced” became the definition for losing one’s job because of one’s website.
Armstrong graduated from Brigham Young and as one might assume, she was raised Mormon. “My family is very, very religious,” she says. “That’s been an ongoing situation.” It’s a topic Armstrong doesn’t shy away from in her blog, including an entry a couple days after September 11th when she admits she, “posted a diatribe comparing Mormons to fundamentalist Islam.” After a pause, she adds, “My mom didn’t talk to me for three months.”
“The website can get in the way of certain things.”
Now back in Salt Lake (“Everything caters to families here…even having a dog in L.A. was difficult”), Armstrong recalls how the makeup of her blog has shifted since its inception. “Early on I talked about life, living in LA, the celebrities I was seeing everyday. That’s shifted to life being married, having a dog, moving back to suburbs in Utah. I try to write about it in a way that everyone can laugh at or relate to.” An avid photographer, Armstrong also features images on her blog, providing visitors with a peek into her world that goes beyond the written word.
Following the birth of her daughter Leta in February 2004, Dooce also evolved into a crucial tool Armstrong used to cope with the new demands of motherhood, including an unexpected bout with post-partum depression. The outpouring of response from other women living through the same ordeal is something that still astounds Armstrong to this day, but it also helped her realize her next career path.
“I think I found what I want to do for the rest of my life,” she says.
It looks as though Armstrong will get to keep her dream job. The popularity of Dooce continues, averaging over 55,000 unique monthly visitors a day. Armstrong recently swept every category she was nominated for at the 2005 Bloggies (think Internet Oscars®) and this March, she will be a featured speaker at the interactive symposium of 2006 SXSW conference in Austin, Texas. Armstrong is also working with a literary agent and close to finishing a book proposal.
Though her website cautions others who might be considering spilling online about the nine-to-five grind (“My advice to you is BE YE NOT SO STUPID”), Armstrong has no desire for a do-over of her experiences. “I wouldn’t go back and change anything.”
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