I'm glad I got out of it when I did. I was there when it was all about keeping it real and staying true to the street. Now it's gone all main-stream and commercial what with book deals and management getting involved.

Although that said, I'd start it again tomorrow if I could have immunity!

This is disturbing. Speech should be free for all, not just to those who make the rules. If our own authorities turn their sights on your good self, what then? You cant delete books. Burn them, but not delete.

If all workplaces were near perfect then work blogs would be dull and pointless. It's blogs like yours that publicly expose the flaws not only in the organisation, but also in the way the taxpayers money is spent.

I can see the day when there will be no work blogs at all; taken down purely from fear. The only ones left will be so PC and lifeless they won't be work reading.

Blogging is going the same way as many fashion statements. They came, they went and life went on. In a few years blogging will be a bygone phase. Enjoy it while it lasts.

Freedom of speech, anyone?
I agree with Vic - bloggers, not to mention writers, journalists, film makers, etc will become so scared to say anything about anything that it will all become a bland mush.

I have a little partial solution to your concerns. Put the odd swear word like 'fuck' in your writing. Many public service run firewalls will pick this up and block your blog as 'porn'. Then no one where you work can find out about your blog. So long as Management don't read it from their home computer that is.

Then you get visits from people looking for something totally unrelated to Ambulance work. I wonder if they get disappointed?

Regards

Bill

could you have used a psuedonm?

'Tom Reynolds' is a pseudonym. But Tom has put so many photos of himself on the blog and given away so much we all know where he is based.

What I am most concerned about is not so much this blog; as Tom's personal and professional future. You don't even have to overstep the mark. Just one power crazed management wallah can upset everything.

I'm not too worried about the ambulance service (assuming any future management think the same way) as Ive gotten a fair amount of vague support.

(And you can get 'no win, no fee' employment solicitors these days...*grin*)

It just seems too close with the recent police trouble.

Free speech, democracy, standing up for what we believe.

If we all cow tow to the 'politically correct' animal that is today's 21st cent ethos, what is going to become of the above?!

I for one stuck my head above the parapet once, and will do it again and support anyone who does.

Glenda

Only the meekest of bloggers will survive.

If that's OK with everyone else!

All the more reason to find ways to ensure freedom of information - not just from government departments and the like, but among ourselves. If there's no freedom of information, there's no democracy. Public sector blogs are essential in order for the public to understand the constraints the public sector operates under. I've described to my mum countless times how much control central government has over local authorities but she still tends to blame her local authority for everything and anything. Ambulance crews undoubtedly go home and discuss their day with their families; we blog readers are an extended family. If the Daily Mail thinks it's entitled to air Prince Charles' diaries, why shouldn't we ordinary folk be entitled to air our own views?

On a glummer note, I notice that even Bystander has expressed concern that his blog is being watched. On a more positive note, there are still a fair few cop blogs around.

while I agree that freedom of information is important, I do feel that there is a difference between a private personal diary written on paper to arrange your thoughts out of your head after a topsy-turvy day, and a weblog published on the web to be read by anyone and everyone who happens to stumble across it.

I'm pretty certain that there's no one who is following my every move on the internet. But there's nothing I click "post" for where I wouldn't feel comfortable with it being seen by my mum, my boyfriend, my boss, the mother of a kid I babysit for, the person who runs the shop down the road... Private written diaries though, they're another matter.

Surely the point is that we get to express an opinion.
Its bad enough at work - at a G grade meeting I got told to keep quiet - what, they were afraid of my comments on hearing that someone got to do a training course over another - more competent person's head just because they were mouthy enough and the "boss" couldnt stand up to them, or the promotion given, not through training or experience, but 'cos someone threatened to quit if they didn't get it - I personally think their bluff should have been called'
When did our employers start telling us how to think and what to say?, as long as nothing is libellous, slanderous, downright lies or breaks patient confidentiality they should stay out and let us vent some steam/spleen , for the sake of our sanities.

To make a point, I will relate a story.

I once worked at a company where a middle manager was having an affair with a married employee in his department. The rumours spread and eventually they had to issue a denial which was backed by the directors. Shortly afterwards, not only did they move in together, the woman's husband died of a heart attack due to this.

Neither are now with the company. Why?

It wasn't because of the affair. It was because they had humiliated the senior management.

It's the same with blogging. You can be factual, truthful and commit no libel. But if you show management for the incompetent money wasters they are, you will suffer.

Argos Employee, World Weary Detective, David Copperfield to name a few have suffered because of their blogs.

The days of the readable blog are numbered.

This is a very worrying trend. I hope the DSA will not be coming for me next!

The Driving Instructor

Surely some bloggers organisation could mount a freedom of speech campaign? Especially for those people who have not had to sign the official secrets act.

Signing the Official Secrets Act is just an adminstrative tick in the box exercise. Everyone is bound by the act whether you have signed it or not. Signing is just an easy way for 'management' to prove that you knew you shouldn't have leaked to the press or sold the information to the Russians.

The trouble is that bloggers are seen by many to just be another of a sub-set of geeks so few people on the outside are that fussed over the trampling of them. It might be possible to boycott some organisations which restrict blogging (eg Argos) but this might not work with hospitals and police forces :-)

Cheers

Mark

I always thought the ambulance service were quite positive about blogging. Your blog got a glowing write up in LAS News. No-one has ever said anything to me about mine, or even tried to identify who is behind it, which suggests to me that they couldn't care less and are too busy worrying about ORCON targets to bother about bloggers. Still, it is kind of worrying that blogs are starting to disappear. I'd hate to have to get rid of mine.

I'm sure dispathers will be next. Who has access to more info than us?