Online Work Can Translate to Joblessness

Hired to teach computer technology at a marketing company, Cameron Barrett suggested his trainees check out his Web page, where he published his own fiction.

Some women staff members did, and were shocked by the violent and sexually explicit passages.

They complained to their boss, and Barrett was fired.

“I said, ‘If you’re interested, you may go read it.’ But at no time did I make it part of their training, and I only said it once,” Barrett said, complaining that his stories were just that, stories. “Do you think Stephen King is going around his neighborhood killing people because that’s what he writes about?”

The lesson?

“Just as people need to watch what they say in real life, what you put on your Web page is going to be visible to everyone, including future employers,” said Esther Dyson, a director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco.

Although the 1st Amendment prevents the government from stifling speech, private employers are under no such constraints.

Companies can fire people for comments deemed inappropriate, and experts warn that personal Web sites, even if done at home, are public venues that employers can use to determine who is suitable for the company.

A few other people across the country have said they have been disciplined or fired over the content of their personal Web pages.

Lizz Sommerfield, 23, said she quit her job at a small Virginia publisher after being ordered to remove any reference to the company on her Web page, where she calls herself “SexyChyck” and poses in leopard-print underwear.

And the Navy has moved to discharge a sailor after 17 years of service when it learned through America Online that he is gay.

Some experts argue that Web pages should be considered private, like the books and magazines read at home. But a lot may depend on whether the employee erases the line between personal and professional.

In the Michigan case, Barrett “essentially invited people to look at a Web page,” University of Michigan law professor Deborah Malamud said. “There’s a real difference between that and being held liable for having a copy of Playboy in your home.”

Barrett, 24, said he thinks that it was unfair that he was fired by Knorr Marketing in Traverse City because two members of the all-female staff he was teaching “were uncomfortable working with me after seeing my fiction.”

The company’s vice president, Jim McIntyre, said “there’s no doubt in my mind” that Barrett wanted the women to read the fiction.

“On several occasions he said, ‘I urge you to look up my own home Web page,’ ” McIntyre said.

Experts warn that such firings will become more common. Businesses, especially those leery of sexual harassment lawsuits, will use the Internet to check on employees and prospective hires, they say.

“Increasingly our employers are looking at our off-duty conduct in terms of how it can affect them,” said Daniel Kruger, professor of industrial relations at Michigan State University.