"Employees violate their duty of loyalty if they engage in public criticism or act in a way that is detrimental to their employerís legitimate business interests."from section 5.6 of of A loyal and non-partisan public service: a legal requirement. Huh - "public criticism". So, for example a public blog post saying that I don't like the new government's policy of painting the roses red would be a violation of my duty of loyalty. This is pretty tricky because of the government is involved in so much and at some point they are going to do something that will piss me off.
Crap.
That's what I use this blog for! For ranting, for formulating arguments, for documenting what's going on in my life as it's happening. Now, I can't see myself publicly criticizing my employer and having that fall under my own definition of professional behaviour, but this is going to make me even more cautious.
One of the guy's at my table today knows a guy that was (recently?) fired for blogging something critical. I'm not sure what he was blogging, or when (from his workstation?) but it really brings it home. You know, that I know a guy that knows a guy who it happened to. I've heard stories of people having criminal convictions against them for stealing stuff from work and they still weren't fired. But let this be a warning to you all. You can tell people that you read online about a guy who knows a guy who was fired for blogging or something - and they'll believe you.
How far does that definition of "your employer" stretch. If you for instance blogged negatively about C-32 legislation, or Harper proroguing parliament, could you be fired? That's a pretty far reaching definition of "your employer". As your work has nothing to do with what's going on in parliament. If however you were blogging negatively about your boss, or something that was going on the specific division of the government that you were working for, then I could see where your employer might actually have a reason to fire you, or at least give you a stern talking do, depending on what you said. The interesting part I see is "act in a way that is detrimental to their employerís legitimate business interests". Does this mean the manager who fired the guy over a blog post should also be fired, because this kind of action show that working for that employer might not be all that great, and would be "detrimental" to their ability to find good employees?
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