Dear Editor,
Hi! I am a former ETSU student who gets the East Tennessean online and enjoys it as well. You all do a great job.
As for my reason for writing, I just wanted to comment about the article about Facebook and other online publications, blogs, etc.
Having worked for the federal government, Virginia state government, a locality and some private sector employers, I have known of people who got disciplined or even “fired” for things they did outside of work on their own time both online and offline.
Here in Virginia, employers, both public and private, often agree to have certain rules and grievance procedures, etc. but, bottom line is, they do not have to do that and some don’t.
If you do something which somehow embarrasses the employer or makes you appear to somehow be unstable or a potential problem, many employers can and will “fire” you, or, at the very least discipline you in a way that makes you wish you’d never done whatever it was you did.
It often concerns me that some college and university students, as well as some high school students, do various things (such as post questionable things online, get drunk or stoned and get arrested or what have you) which can and often will adversely affect their career options.
That may seem like a “well, duh” thing to say, however, some people never get the word or don’t believe it’s true only to later find out, to their great regret, that it is true.
I don’t mean to be an annoyance, however, back when I was at ETSU, I wish that someone had told me, or that we had been required to take a class which explained a lot of the folkways and mores of the work world.
We may have certain freedoms, as private citizens, but some of these freedoms do not transfer to the work world and employers have a great deal of freedom and power and can make things difficult for people who do not “toe the line” in their behavior.
Perhaps you all should consider doing more articles about this sort of thing. Just offering a helpful “word to the wise.”
– Marshall Buckles

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