I've got blogophobia

I never followed his blogging that closely, but after reading about the experience of Virginia Department of Business Assistance employee Will Vehrs, I've developed a little fear of blogging. Especially during business hours.

The short version of this story is that Vehrs posted some disparaging comments about a certain geographic region of the commonwealth of Virginia, prompting calls for his dismissal by legislators from that area and ultimately resulting in a ten day suspension from his job without pay by Governor Tim Kaine. In the wake of this, Vehrs has decided to stop blogging. Permanently.

Will's ordeal has got me thinking twice about my recent spontaneous blogging kick, and blogging in general. My phobia is probably also being fueled by an experience I had several years ago, when I found myself in a sticky spot with my CEO after he learned about a post I made on a listserv regarding a bad experience I had with a vendor, and the opinion I had developed of that vendor. My post was in response to an inquiry specifically about this company, but the CEO happened to be connected somehow to a senior employee at the vendor, and well, you can connect the dots.

From reading my analytics, I also recently discovered that I have picked up a reader from the National Funeral Directors Association. This person actually contacted me recently on an unrelated topic, and I made it a point to make sure there were no hard feelings about an earlier post I made regarding NFDA. There were none, the NFDA employee told me.

I don't want enemies. If I've offended you, let me know and give me the opportunity to make it right.

By the way, I'm off the clock right now.

Tagged: Accountability; Association; Association Management; Associations; blogging; blogophobia; blogs; CAE; Certified Association Executive; opinion; Will Vehrs