Ask a Manager

Remember the letter from the woman who noticed that her coworker — who was also her ex-boyfriend — was posting really inappropriate stuff online, like revealing photos of himself, stories of his sexual exploits, and negative commentary on their employer? She worked in HR and so was wondering whether or not to mention it to anyone.

Here’s her update:

Well, he acted too big for his boots, and got booted out for leaking confidential product information, which he heard from another department, to a friend of his to blog. Booting him out was used as an example in our company on how not to be an asshole in using social media.

Then he posted his firing letter online in his blog ( as a means to get sympathy – hahaha – for him) – and some of the companies where he was interviewing saw the blog post and rescinded the offer. He went back to his old blogging job, and is still around in our small technology town, but no longer the toast of parties or events.

Lessons learned from here? Be really nice on social media. Do not be racist, sexist or homophobic. And just because you blog, you are not the smartest person in the world.

And on the dating side : I did check with some trusted seniors on this one. As long as the two people are not in a position to influence each others performance reviews etc, it is all fine. Two of my colleagues recently got married and it was good to be there to wish them well.

Personally, I have diversified my dating pool mostly outside of my company and am very much single and enjoying the singledom.