Cut the snark and save your job: How not to gripe online

October 10, 2013

Admit it: You watched Marina Shifrin’s “I Quit” video with giddy delight. You mentally pumped your fist in solidarity, maybe even fantasized about your own choreographed kiss-off to your employer. Based on the 15-million-and-counting views Shifrin’s video has received, many people have dreamed about leaving a job and publicly slamming the door on the way out. Still, most of us know better than to burn bridges with such a foolhardy stunt. But even if you’re not making viral videos, the technology you use every day could be telegraphing your dissatisfaction to your employer and jeopardizing your current job—and your next one. Loose lips sink careers It’s natural to notice a coworker’s questionable attire or a VP’s tendency to arrive late to work. Kept to yourself or voiced through proper channels, it’s also harmless. But sharing bons mots about ugly shoes or poorly divided workloads through the tools you use every day—email, instant messaging, texting, social networks—can quickly undermine your job. “I have seen a lot of employees misusing technology and limiting their careers,” says Aileen Kelly Schwab, director of human resources at UniversityParent, a website that provides on- and off-campus resources to parents of college students. “Their casual conversations used to stay in the break room. Now they’re on Facebook.” When you’re communicating through tools that connect you with hundreds of people inside and outside the office, one errant mouse click can put your thoughts in front of a very unappreciative audience. Wrong chat window, wrong email recipient, email innocently forwarded beyond your target reader—you might as well queue up outside the HR office. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2051341/cut-the-snark-and-save-your-job-how-not-to-gripe-online.html#tk.rss_all