A dissatisfied,
resentful and frustrated employee is inevitable in the workplace. Those who
have been an employee will be all too familiar with the casual rant or whine
about work. Often times we actually carry out this act of complaining right in
the thick of our work environment. Risky! I know! Which is why it is not surprising
that complaining about work has migrated to the online world, in a place called
the blogosphere. This blogosphere is a domain of interconnected blogs, that
either represents “current trends or discussions in the real world” (Uchida et al. 2009, p. 208). Through the
blogosphere there is an element of anonymity that helps bloggers write whatever
they want. Thus with employees using the blogosphere, they are free to complain, rant, and be cynical of any
aspect of their occupation.
Source: Suit for the Keyboard Warrior
Realized by Kanter and Mirvis, this cynicism in
employees is prevalent in most workplaces, as modern day employees are having
much doubt in the truth of what is said by management (Richards & Kosmala,
2013 p. 66). Yet this doubt is not all that negative, rather in being able to
express these thoughts online, employees are given a sense of control and
community with others that feel the same way. This cynicism allows employees to
feel empowered, while the blogosphere provides them the sanctuary and
community.
In the world of
the blogosphere, employees are able to escape their corporate culture, where there is a constant expectation to be self-disciplined, compliant and constantly at work (Richards
& Kosmala, 2013, p. 68).
Source: Corporate Psychology
In a way the above is the hegemonic ideology management imposes on the employees, and it is through blogging that they are able to challenge that dominance. While there are managers that find this a threat to their operations, Jonathan Schwartz, ex-CEO at Sun Microsystems, find honest blogging beneficial. In an article in the Economic Times, Schwartz states that honest blogs written by employees can provide the company with helpful feedback (ET Bureau, 2011). According to Nelson (2006, p.6) blogs are turning the Internet into a two-way discussion. In turn if management somehow takes note of this cynical blogging, they may be able to take some measures in providing a better workplace, thereby communicating back through their actions.
ET Bureau 2011, “Employee blogs can provide
honest perspective on workings of a company: Jonathan Schwartz, ex CEO, Sun
Microsystems, Economic Times, 2nd
December, date retrieved: 1st September 2013, <http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2011-12-02/news/30468114_1_bloggers-employee-sun-microsystems>
Nelson, M 2006, 'The Blog Phenomenon and the Book Publishing
Industry', Publishing Research Quarterly, 22, 2, p. 5)
Richards, J Kosmala, K 2013, “In the end, you can only slag people off for so long”: employee cynicism through work blogging”, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol. 28, No.1, Blackwell, Oxford
Richards, J Kosmala, K 2013, “In the end, you can only slag people off for so long”: employee cynicism through work blogging”, New Technology, Work and Employment, Vol. 28, No.1, Blackwell, Oxford
Uchida, M Shibata, N Kajikawa, Y Takeda, Y
Shirayama, S Katsumori, M 2009,
“Identifying The Large Scale Structure Of The Blogosphere”, Advances in Complex Systems, Vol. 12,
No. 2, World Scientific Publishing Company, pp. 2017 – 219
Brittany,
ReplyDeleteWithin the first two sentences I can and I am sure a lot of readers can already relate to your blog. You have used some really strong reliable sources and great imagery throughout this blog that only added to the already valuable content and the title is really catchy. The only thing I could recommend is to use some hyperlinks.
Bloggers write whatever they want – this is true and one of the best parts about blogging. Whilst you say that employees can rant about their jobs and say whatever they want, the real question is should they? As Richards and Kosmala state, yes it is a great place for employees to escape work, but I believe that they can do that at home to an extent; therefore I don’t see the need for negativity about the workplace. If you want to escape the workplace, why keep talking about it. This could backfire if your employer was to see it.
Whilst what Schwartz says is interesting, why wouldn’t employees express their matters straight to the company if they can be beneficial for the company, why hide behind a blog. It is great if employers can bite the bullet and improve from the feedback, but if they don’t like what has been said this is where problems could be caused.
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI quite enjoy reading your blog about the employment and blogosphere. The title is very attractive and shows the key topic of your blog. You made the concept of blogosphere very clear in you first paragraph with the definition from Uchida et .al. The whole blog shows that you’ve done a wide range of reading and you were able to relate those to your discussion on employees’ cynical blogging. However, I agree with Katie’s comment that it is not a way to escape from the workplace. Personally, if doing blog is not a compulsory thing, I believe that most of people want to gain attention from readers. So when the employees using blog to complain work, they are still bound with work and they want others to notice that.
Violet
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteFirst off, great introduction. It was very relatable as I myself have done this before in the workplace. I thought it was interesting how you wrote your blog from a positivist perspective how blogs can enrich the work place rather than damage the reputation of the company as I have done in my post. It was great to hear about this from another perspective although I do think that by critiquing the company too harshly on the online world can have negative effects although I can now also see how it can be constructive as well.
Great use of images and referencing. Looking forward to your next blog post. Well done!
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great post! I can completely relate to the escape of corporate culture that people seem to find online. You presented the advantages of this well and I have not before thought about the empowerment that people probably feel when they are able to express their true views online. Perhaps you could have recognised a couple more negative points to balance your argument but overall a very smooth, informative post.
Lauren
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI really like your idea about blogosphere, it's an idea I've never thought and thank you for showing us such a good blog. And I totally agree with you, when I was upset because of my past time job, I go the blog, I write something in the blog, not for asking someone to comfort me, but to speak out that I'm not happy now. Also, I think the use of blog to speak out what you are thing has advantage and the opposite affect. The advantage is , like you said in your blog, they are free to talk. For the disadvantage, I think is, people may find it hard to say what's in their mind after that.
Hi Brittany,
ReplyDeleteI thought this was a great post. The title tells the reader exactly what the post will be about and made me want to read on. Dissatisfied employees using the blogosphere as a means of expression is something I never really thought of but after reading this post I agree that it can have good and bad consequences. I think it is a really relatable topic because most people would have been unhappy in their job at some point so it helps them to understand what a blogosphere is. I think your quotes were really good, I don't know if this is feasible but I think it would have added another dimension if you were able to provide a link to someones blog post where they were discussing work issues, just a thought.
Katelyn
Hi, Brittany,
ReplyDeleteThis is a good post, the title and introduction has attracted reader’s attention, and shown the critical sides of blogosphere. As a lot of people doubt the negative effect of blog, that the blog sphere is free and open for people to express their opinion and it is easy for people to access to others private information, this blog has also point out the positive side of blog, such as employees’ honest blogs can provide the company with useful feedback. In addition to this, this blog has use a lot of powerful sources that make reader to get more knowledge.