Mark Jen was fired from Google after 2 weeks with the company for posting critical remarks in his blog, http://99zeros.blogspot.com/ according to an article about Jen in WebProsNews.com.
After a couple of weeks hiatus, Jen is back posting again and this time a Google AdSense banner appears on his blog which is ironic since Jen used to be an Associate Product Manager of AdSense. You have to give him credit for his sense of humor.
Also, you just have to like this guy as well. Its hard not to like a guy who is just relocating for his new job, stops by Ikea in the rain and tries to fit a queen size bed into a compact car. Apparently his likeability is not what he was fired for.
If you read Jen’s blog you’ll see some remarks about how the Googleplex and its benefits are geared to keep workers working. Free lunch and dinner, a free charter bus from San Francisco to Mountain View with an Internet connection, onsite doctor, dentist and carwash, all having the purpose of keeping workers working. And Google even gets good press for this as well.
From my experience, Google isn’t the first to do this and employees generally know the score and gripe about this among themselves.
There is some other dirty laundry that Jen airs as well about relocation packages and health benefits, which probably most employees can relate to as well.
The fact that Jen went public with the complaints about his employer through his blog raises difficult questions about where to draw the line as far as freedom of expression versus an employer’s right to privacy and expectation of employee loyalty.
I’m not saying that what Jen did was disloyal. I’m a big believer of freedom of expression myself and I’m all for the little guy over the big corporate interests. But I do think that the little guy needs to be aware that if you keep biting the hand that feeds you, you’ll eventually get slapped.
