Online screw-ups affecting the workplace — continued

The theme of posting one’s thoughts online deleteriously affecting one’s worklife continues apace — first graduate students, then nannies, and now… shudder… adjunct university professors. Joe Strupp explains for Editor & Publisher:

A former Boston Herald sports writer, who was laid off in May as part of a string of newsroom cutbacks, now has lost his part-time teaching job at Boston University after posting Web comments about a student, which described her as “incredibly hot.” Michael Gee, an 18-year veteran of the Herald, confirmed the incident, but declined comment to E&P Friday. Bob Zelnick, chair of the B.U. journalism department, said he heard about Gee’s posting on Wednesday from a university publicist, who had received a phone call about it from a blogger…. The comments, which appeared on www.sportsjournalists.com, but were later removed, included the following: “Today was my first day teaching course 308/722 at the Boston University Dept. of Jounralis (sic). There are six students, most of whom are probably smarter than me, but they DON’T READ THE PAPER!!! Not the Globe, Times, Herald or Wall Street Journal. I can shame them into reading, I guess, but why are they taking the course if they don’t like to read. “But I digress. Now here’s the nub of my issue. Of my six students, one (the smartest, wouldn’t you know it?) is incredibly hot. If you’ve ever been to Israel, she’s got the sloe eyes and bitchin’ bod of the true Sabra. It was all I could do to remember the other five students. I sense danger, Will Robinson.” Word of Gee’s firing, and a copy of his posting, first appeared on www.bostonsportsmedia.net.

Via Over at CNET’s new and interesting workplace blog, Paul Festa thinks this is another example of bloggers gone wild — however, as David Scott points out:

For those wondering, sportsjournalists.com, in a nutshell, is a place where sports desk editors, as well as sportswriters and others, vent over how crummy this paper or that columnist is. It?s also a networking spot to get info on the latest openings and movement at papers across the country. Like most message boards, it serves a purpose and then serves the fellowship of the miserable even more.

Strictly speaking, Gee wasn’t blogging — furthermore, it was a blogger who apparently called him out. [And would you have done the same thing if you had read Gee’s post?–ed. Given that Gee posted this in a public forum, yep, you betcha. Er, haven’t you occasionally evinced an ocular interest in the fairer sex on this blog?–ed. It’s one thing to point out that a public figure has pleasing features when. in part, that’s why they are public figures — it’s another thing entirely to publicly make the same point about someone over whom you hold an authority relationship. There are certain bright lines in my job, and that’s one of them.]