WARNING -- Your Clever Little Blog Could Get You Fired

(From The USA Today -- By Stephanie Armour)

Like a growing number of employees, PETER WHITNEY decided to launch a BLOG on the Internet to chronicle his life, his friends and his job at a division of WELLS FARGO.

Then he began taking jabs at a few people he worked with.

His blog, , did find an audience -- his bosses. In August 2004, the 27-year-old was fired from his job handling mail and the front desk, he says, after managers learned of his Web log, or blog.

His story is more than a cautionary tale. DELTA AIR LINES, GOOGLE and other major companies are firing and disciplining employees for what they say about work on their blogs, which are personal sites that often contain a mix of frank commentary, freewheeling opinions and journaling.

And it's hardly just an issue for employees -- some major employers such as IBM are now passing first-of-their-kind employee blogging guidelines designed to prevent problems, such as the online publishing of trade secrets, without stifling the kinds of blogs that can also create valuable buzz about a company.

Currently there are 8.5 million bloggers in ths USA.

57% of them are male. 48% of them are under age 30.

42% of them earn more than $50,000 a year.

39% of them have college or graduate degrees.

82% of them have been online for 6 years or more.

Warning -- Your Clever Little Blog Could Get You Fired