Comments on: Ben Metcalfe and Scoble

By: Hugh

Hugh — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 19:14:33 +0000

I for one hope that Ben remains outspoken and interesting. Long may his BBC bosses ignore the blogosphere!

By: Ben Metcalfe

Ben Metcalfe — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:25:08 +0000

(or no one cares)

By: Ben Metcalfe

Ben Metcalfe — Fri, 16 Dec 2005 18:24:49 +0000

As it happens, no one has formally mentioned the whole incident at work (yet).

Which is either indicative of employment issues in the UK, or how many senior people actually stay up to date with the blogosphere in the BBC.

Or a bit of both.

By: Hugh

Hugh — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 22:20:57 +0000

I think you would probably get a warning in the UK before being fired for speaking out of turn in public, unless you said something really bad, but it’s not like France or Germany where you are truly protected from your boss.

By: Robert Scoble

Robert Scoble — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 21:52:23 +0000

Yeah, also keep in mind that employment practices are different between US and UK. In UK, my readers tell me, it’s a lot harder to get fired. In US I’m working “at will” which basically means I can be fired at any time for any reason.

You’ve certainly seen people get fired for things they’ve done on their blogs here and I’m sure there’ll be more to come.

By: admin

admin — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 20:34:21 +0000

Well I suppose Scoble is giving him some friendly advice. There’s a hint in his post that the BBC might sack him if he doesn’t watch what he says in public.

By: hugh macleod

hugh macleod — Wed, 14 Dec 2005 20:30:15 +0000

Both Robert and Ben are perfectly nice people. Ben isn’t taking flack, Robert just happens to disagree with him, as do I on certain points. No big deal.