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Nintendo employee fired for blogging
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 24th September 2007
Jessica Zenner (pictured) was fired for posting personal thoughts on her Blog, 'The Daily Weed'.
I'm referring of course to Jessica Zenner, a 23 year old contractor for Nintendo who has been formally fired for posting inappropriate comments on her personal blog. Jessica, who posted under the pseudonym of Jessica Carr, was unaware of Nintendo’s scrutiny and thought she was protected by her right to freedom of speech.
Not so.
Zenner's blog, called "The Daily Weed", never mentions Nintendo directly but does covers a number of personal topics. According to Seattle newspaper The Stranger, these include "disputing her friends' perception that she is a pothead".
Most controversial however is the post about Zenners bosses:
"One plus about working with [a] hormonal, facial-hair-growing, frumpy [woman] is that I have found a new excuse to drink heavily...My gut tells me that this woman hasn't been ****ed in years."
The dismissal obviously again raises the question about just what is and isn't acceptable for a company employee to say in their free time. Zenner herself claims that she was never informed about the Nintendo policy on employee blogging, but a Nintendo spokeswoman claims that Jessica was "expressly discouraged from doing what she did".
What do you think? Should employees be held responsible for their output outside of the office, or should they be free to shout their opinions from the rooftops? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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Comments (25)
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EDIT: From the article you linked the blog post in question is called
the daily weed, not the whole blog
Also known as the Streisand Effect...
Personally I'd always be a bit careful about what I put on email or a blog - not that my current employer is tech savvy enough to put what I write on the internet together with my real identity. Wait a minute... I've just posted about my employer under my real name. Doh! (better brush up my CV)
Nothing makes me more irritated then when a corporation oversteps there bounds. I would almost take that line of "expressly discouraged from doing what she did" bit and call it harassment/threatening.
>:|
Lol. :P
You really think so? Not my taste tbh...
Come on, take another look man. Just because she is female, does not make her hot. :P
If the poss she insulted was the one that read it, and she knew who wrote it and was offended. Then she does have the
right to take legal action or (I think) fire her. While I think that it isn't right for her to be fired for writing in her free time,
she does need to realize she did post on a public space. I had the same thing happen to me a few years back with my own
personal website. I wrote a post up about a kid in one of my classes. (In all my maturity at the time, questioning his sexuality,
his physical strength... meh you know what dumb ass high school freshmen are like, use your imagination.) I got 30 hours
community service for libel/slander (I never remember which one.) *shrugs* Live, learn, get Luvs, move on. So now I just word
my posts and such a bit more carefully. I'm all for free speech. (Like that Meyer incident? I think that's BS tazing a kid.) But
the cold honest truth is, she put her thoughts out in public where anyone could read them. And someone did and played
connect the dots. *shrugs*
i don't see how this is legal, people have always insulted their bosses to their friends, if she wants to write it down in a blog for everyone to read, fine
Hell she didn't even mention ninty so no-one would have actually known what she was on about
What if she said it to a coworker, about her boss? What if the boss over-heard? Does that change anything?
If you put something on the internet, that is publicly viewable, then you should expect that the entire public would read it.
Aggies
However, the company would have to prove a connection between themselves and the blog.
There was a recent case of a flight attendant blogger being fired, she didn't mention the company, but did post a photo of herself in the company uniform
But, that does not give you the right to talk about work / staff / bosses or other people etcâ¦
Why, because you donât have permission to talk about other people â especially in a place where others can read it.
If it was a personal diary, where itâs not available for others to read, then yes.
You should always be careful about what you write (type).
So next time you decide to write (Type) about work / staff / bosses or other people, then make sure you have permission first.
I have not read her blog, but I did start, then realised that I actually have better things to do with my time.
Also, I donât really know her, so how do I know this blog is actually even her own thoughts or writing!
I just donât know, something smells fishy, and itâs not me - HAHA
Yeah, but a female stoner who is employed at Nintendo is obviously hot, lol. :P