InsideGoogle

Mark Jen Firing Confirmed

Jeremy Zawodny talked to former Google blogger Mark Jen last night about his abrupt termination from the company:

Believe it or not, I met Mark tonight (err, “last night” to most of you at this point) and had a chance to chat with him about his brief time at Google and various other things. I’m not going to reveal everything we discussed, but I would like to clarify a few things and respond to John’s request for commments.

First off, nothing Mark said surprised me. Yes, he was fired from Google. It was directly related to his blog. He was employed there for just a couple of weeks.

Mark’s a good guy. He doesn’t believe he was doing anything wrong (neither do I based on what he told me). In fact, he wasn’t even aware of the blogosphere’s Google obsession–or at least the search bloggers who watch every little thing Google does–until this happened. Let’s just say that he was surprised by his sudden fame.

Then, talking about the fact that he is blogging while working for Yahoo:

Oh, and I have managed to piss off, anger, and otherwise frighten more than my fair share of PR folks at Yahoo, including Chris. But that’s hardly a surprise. Many PR professionals initially have strong reactions. Some continue to do so. But on the flip side, ask the recuiting folks if writing my blog has helped or hurt our ability to hire. I think you’ll like the anwer you’d hear.

And Google’s paranoia:

Google has their reasons for being paranoid about public communication and remaining as secretive as they can about nearly everything they do. That’s just the way it is, and I won’t speculate on their reasons. But I do think they’re missing a real opportunity to get involved in a lot of interesting discussions. For now, though, they’re apparently content to watch and listen.

My advice to Google employess who really want to be more open than they can be: send me your resume.

Just kidding!

Yahoo has Jeremy. Microsoft has Scoble. Google will fire you if you even try. Why? Both of the other companies’ big bloggers are controllable and willing to remove posts that violate some corporate policy. I just don’t understand it. Does Google actually believe it can keep this up? No amount of secrecy lasts forever. How much longer before Google starts suing bloggers?

Sadly, I just feel terrible about this. In my eagerness for an honest Google blogger, I jumped all over this story. I kept reporting on it every step of the way. Outside of this blog, I’ve reporting on lots of stories I didn’t want to report on, that would hurt others (or even myself) because they needed to be told. Did this need to be told? Did we need to dissect every word Mark wrote? Were his musings on company dentists and Ikea that compelling? Probably not. Sadly, I wouldn’t be much of a reporter or a blogger if I ignored it, but I just wish Mark hadn’t lost his job over it.

This is the business we’re in, reporting on events and persons of consequence, and many times, the actions we take to expose that information hurts people. It’s a lot more personal on a blog, and sometimes it can just seem more like a conversation between friends than actual reporting, but in the end, we are reporting on real people and our reporting has effects on the world around us.

The one bit of solace in this: Its possible Google was going to fire Mark anyway, since they did have him pull the blog before almost anyone noticed it. If they were going to fire him before we jumped on the story, at least the blogosphere was here to catch it, to call Google on it, and to hopefully offer some kind words in what is undoubtably a tough time for Mark. If that is the case, maybe, just maybe, it was all worth it.
(via Google Blogoscoped)

UPDATE: Scoble weighs in too:

The thing I like about working at Microsoft is that I can talk smack about my boss (I wish he’d give me a reason, though, Lenn is one of the best people I’ve ever worked for) and I can write about things that I’d like to see Microsoft do in the future. Yes, there are risks.

Reading Mark’s blog I can see a variety of mistakes he made. When you start at a new company you need to build a relationship network before you start discussing the company in public. You need to understand what the various forces that have power (and, at every company there are probably people who have more power than you do — even the CEO has to listen to the board of directors and to other people inside the company) and you have to work carefully and deliberately.

It’s not easy writing in public. All it takes is one paragraph to lose credibility, have people laugh at you, get you sued, create a PR firestorm, or get your boss mad at you. Think about that one for a while. Just a few hundred pixels on the screen can dramatically change what people think about you.

February 9th, 2005 Posted by Nathan Weinberg | General | 7 comments