Blogging and Career: The Great Balancing Act

“Put my HR blog on hold because once folks at my work found me, I suddenly felt exposed in an unsupported way from coworkers.” 

Many companies have hopped on the social media train in different ways such as company blogs, Twitter accounts, Facebook fan pages (or are they called LIKE pages, now?), or intranet sites to keep their associates connected. However, many companies have not anticipated this:

What if associates are so passionate about the work they do that they want to create their own personal blog about it?

Being fairly young in the workforce and having great passion around what I do, I was incredibly thrilled to create my own personal blog. I never thought twice about making it anonymous. Why would I do that? I want people to know who I am so I can connect with my readership. In fact, I named my blog “Meet Cindy Elizabeth.” I was one blog out of many and I never even considered that coworkers or friends who knew me on a personal level would find it and read what I was thinking – whether it was about resume writing tips or organizational culture. Since I am not the “subject matter expert” I think I worry too much what others would think about what I have to say.

When my immediate co-worker found my blog, I was taken back. I felt my cheeks turn bright red like I was embarrassed for hiding something and he was so casual about the whole thing. He didn’t care, but I cared. I was scared out of my brains that this was the beginning of co-workers finding my blog. I had no idea how my company would feel about me having a blog talking about HR. There isn’t a social media policy in place and I am absolutely clueless as to what is and is not okay in my organization.  In fact, I still don’t know.  The other side of the coin is this: sometimes I am not speaking from experience and I am talking from the heart and expressing my opinion. I often put the pressure on myself to not express my voice about something at work if I am not the subject matter expert. So the question I often find myself asking is:

Does passion trump knowledge?

I quit writing because of fear of repercussion if it wasn’t okay that I had a blog.  It was clear that this was my writing and even though I had quickly removed any reference to my company, I still felt scared, nervous, and small. In the Corporate HR world, I have found it hard to put my stake in the ground and move it around if I need to.  I can promise I am not saying anything earth shattering but I often feel bogged down by the chains of the what-if, “What if my boss finds my blog – what would she think?”

So, my questions are:

• Are more companies putting social media policies in place around associates with personal blogs?
• How do folks handle situations when coworkers DO find your blogs?
• Am I just simply over analyzing and over reacting?

What do you think?