I’m working from home today, because there is snow on the ground and I see no point in wasting excessive amounts of time inching along with the millions of people in this area who are unable to drive their vehicles in snow. I was chatting with one of my supervisors on instant message about a meeting that was scheduled for today and suddenly he interjects that the other supervisor (aka, the zombie shooter from an earlier, now redacted, post) was informed that her picture was on my site and is now pissed.
I nearly choked on my latte.
For the past four years, this site has been largely anonymous. Sure, you know my name is Lindsay and you know the names of my pets and my close friends, but you don’t know where I work or the names of the people I work with. That’s intentional. I don’t want to share details about other people or companies without their consent. I also don’t want my professional life intersecting with this website when I’m talking about depression, cracking jokes about being a slacker, or sharing anecdotes about poop or chafing. This separation of church and state has been largely successful – this site does not come up if you Google my full name, and only a very small handful of “trusted” coworkers even know this site exists. I say trusted loosely, since one of them thought it would be great to bring this site to the attention of the rest of the department today.
Let it be known now, then, that I would never say anything here to harm my employer in any way. I work for a good, ethical company that is a lot bigger than me and my little life. I would never defame my company or colleagues by name here. But if you shoot zombies in my department, you’re going on my website because, dude, YOU SHOT ZOMBIES AT WORK. The thing that gets me is that I made sure this person’s face was fully hidden and could never be identified, so why all the fuss? An anonymous funny photo where the face is covered sure doesn’t seem like a reason to freak out in my book, especially not a freak out that involves telling our boss before you tell me.
But that’s what happened and now that cat is out of the bag: I have a blog, I talk about being a slacker, and I put up a censored photo of somebody from work without their permission. My first reaction was to pull the site down or start deleting posts, but then I decided not to go there. I don’t want to censor my own personal website, especially when I’m not actually taking anybody or any organization down with me.
And to anyone from my work who is now visiting here for the first time, welcome. Yes, I have trouble arriving on time and yes, I do spend a lot of time on the Internet. But I also do my work well. It may not be my first choice of career, it may not bring me great joy, but I still take pride in doing an excellent job on the things I am asked to do. Name one project that I’ve been assigned to do that I have not completed successfully and I’ll happily show up on time.
Nothing? Great. Thanks. See you when I get there on Monday.
Wow, I’m calling bullshit! I looked at that picture/post and thought “How cool! A place that knows how to let loose from time to time! And she’s shooting ZOMBIES!!” but thought nothing of it ever again until now. Unless that woman has a black box for a head, I’d NEVER recognize her. Not even in a lineup. Good on ya for calling it out like that. Sounds like some pretty messed up crap!
Sucky (is that a word, spell check is yelling at me for using it).
I have really enjoyed your blog. Your candid posts are fantastic. But, as you just discovered, there is a certain amount of vulnerability with being so free in your blogging. As a professional I have always have to censor myself to some extent to avoid getting in trouble with work or the family. I don’t really like keeping it clean, my preference is more in the gutter at any given moment. Of course that isn’t PC most of the time.
Hopefully you can find a balance as I would be sad not to read about mice, bowel movements, a bit of bike racing, and a similar view on corporate environment to my own. Keep the rubber side down.