Facebook, Myspace, and your job...

I received an email today from the National Education Association that contained an article about whether or not Facebook and Myspace could cost a person their career. In the article (click here to read it http://www.nea.org/home/12784.htm) there were several examples of people that had lost their job due to what had been posted on their online profiles. Most of the people were dismissed for posting racy sexual photos, photos of doing drugs or drinking, and comments about their extracurricular (not appropriate for educators) behavior.

Part of me thinks that everyone has their First Amendment rights and as long as they are not involving their extracurricular activities with their career then they should be able to do as they please. But the other part of me thinks that when you are hired for a position that places you in the public eye (i.e. teacher, police officer, mayor, firefighter, state rep, etc.) then you sign up to be a 24/7 role model. A role model that has people watching you, looking specifically for the stumble that could take your job away indefinitely.

Now, do I think that our contracts should say that people in these positions should not be allowed to participate in web sites that have online profiles...NO! But I do think that if you are going to have an online profile that you shouldn't be posting pictures/blogs about your inappropriate extracurriculars, whether you are a priest, teacher, police officer, custodian, IT person, stay-at-home parent, or anything else.

It feels like SPRING! (knock on wood)

The past two days the temperature has reached into the 50s and I am very excited about the nice weather. However, I am also skeptical because I know that Mother Nature is probably holding back another storm that she will release at some point within the next few weeks.

I have been joyously watching at the snow melts ever-so-slowly from the backyard, and the mud grows ever-so-quickly! It is way too much fun trying to wipe off the girls' paws before they come into the house. This Friday is the first day of spring, which will hopefully only bring on much nicer weather. But I do remember a time that it snowed on Mother's Day Weekend, so we can only hope!

I hope that you are able to enjoy this beautiful weather too!