Just a few minutes ago, I finished writing a post about my recent difficulties with some of my training classes. I posted it on Facebook and then a minute later, I deleted it. It’s something that’s been on my mind a lot lately which is why I wrote about it, but putting it on Facebook made me very uncomfortable. Why?
Well, there was a time in my life where I posted a LOT of things on this blog. Some of it was probably inappropriate to be on a public blog, but most of it was just my own ramblings about things going on in my own life.
However, all cards on the table, a single blog post once cost me a job. Since then, I made the conscious decision to keep pretty much anything about my work off of my blog. I didn’t want to have history repeat itself.
Since then, I have been pretty quiet about much of the specifics of what goes on where I work. Anytime I would write a post that would have anything related to work on it, I’d re-write it so that work wasn’t included. But once in awhile I’d make a reference to something but always in good taste and never breaking any rules.
So I wrote that article about my training issues because it’s something that was really bothering me. It’s something I wanted to write about and get out of my system. I read that post over and over again until I was sure that it was ok. It doesn’t talk about any of my specific clients, or even places that I was at. It doesn’t name specific individuals or companies that I was at. It doesn’t contain anything proprietary or confidential that would break any company policies. It does talk about the technologies that I teach about but none of those are proprietary and can be found easily through a quick Google search.
Everything about that post is purely my own thoughts and feelings and expresses them in a pretty clear way, without violating any confidentiality agreements.
So why is it that I am so paranoid about posting a story like that on Facebook?
I know I haven’t done anything wrong and I know I haven’t broken any rules. But I guess even things from so far back in your past still stick with you. There must still be a part of me that’s paranoid about what the wrong person would see in a post like that.
I want to be able to share some of the stuff I post on here on Facebook since many of my FB friends don’t visit my blog (and rightly so since I don’t post here a lot). But it is a place I can write about things on my mind and I know I haven’t written anything here that crosses any lines as far as my work is concerned.
Gotta find a way to get over it…
