You Are Invited to a Masked Ball

There is absolutely no excuse for me blogging right now. % I have work to mark, courses to plan and sleep to catch up on having roused myself (ooer) at 4am in order to catch up with things I slept through the night before. Like work. [DS % al coda]

But this post has been hanging around in my head for several months now and I have wrestled with writing it. Last night as the Bestie and I talked about some of my pupils at school and I showed her the blog entry, she challenged me and it brought up the whole issue again. And it is this.

Anonymity.

Where to start?

Some of you, who have hung around these pages for a while now, will remember my Bestie and perhaps have visited her blog. I launched her upon you as she recounted the unfortunate tale (heh heh heh no pun intended) of the Rottweiler that bit her butt and provided photographic evidence of same. She 'reviewed' the school musical...perhaps harshly but it certainly made me laugh... and then there was the day that we visited the school fair together and she managed to find, much to her hysterical amusement, a salt dough crucifix at the craft stall. Did I mention the Bestie is an Atheist? (capital A)

The thing is, she used to have a blog. It was a fun blog. It was witty and edgy and oft opinionated (we're like that) and it had wild/funny pictures and recounted stories of her life, at home with family and friends and from time to time.....at work. Are you hearing where this is going?

Like me, she put her picture on the sidebar and like me she had a 'screen-name'. She never referred to anyone by their real names, and that included her place of work, but she did recount events that happened there and made comment on the political scene that surrounded it. I linked to her blog, perhaps in a less than discreet manner but most importantly, she, in her usual trusting way, gave the address to several friends and colleagues whom she believed had a healthy sense of disrespect and a good sense of humour.

She no longer has that job.

As happens in situations where you tell a 'trusted few', the address got out. Most of the office has been reading the blog and loving it for months but one slightly 'holier than thou type' took offence and reported the blog to the Board. Who over-reacted in the extreme.

The thing that really gets my goat about the whole business is that the Bestie LOVED her job. She was passionate about the cause and not at all flippant when going about the serious day to day business of managing a range of social minorities whom most employers would have declared bankruptcy and changed business addresses, rather than employ. The week before the 'beginning of the end' we had spent an entire day making ribbons for badge day.....calloused fingers and all! I don't believe, as CEO, that this was in her job description!!

But my Bestie is not a political animal. She always does her best and does the best for the organisation and she has no defences for when people are threatened by her or object to her style or challenge her personal life. The sharks were circling. Those with a personal interest in her job (they wanted it) or with a complaint against her rapid changes to the 'system' or with a belief that as a non member of their 'community' that she couldn't effectively manage their organisation, seized the opportunity to sink in their fangs.

Over what? An 'anonymous' blog which occasionally poked gentle fun at the ' community'? A blog which dealt mostly with family and friends, which did not come up on any Google search of keywords.....except Arizaphale........and which also carried the fire of her zeal and the anger she felt towards the Government and the lunatic fringe which threatened the funding of her organisation! It incenses me still to think about it.

When the letter came however, it was easy to see how, out of context, her words had been twisted and misinterpreted. My Bestie, one of the most long standing and loyal of (I wish I had another word for it) Fag Hags....was accused of being homophobic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! *bitter laugh*

At the end of the day, although she parted company with the organisation, she was vindicated in that the National organisation kept her on the board of directors and asked her to consider the role of Fund Raising Manager; many people in 'the community' regard her highly and are appalled at her treatment; and the key players responsible for her demise have since resigned.

She also very quickly got another job with an equally deserving organisation.

But all this begs the question. What about work? What about anonymity? How anonymous should one be? I mean, I know for a fact that I 'bond' (is that the right word?) with a blogger better if I can picture them. So I put up my picture. I have nothing to be ashamed of and don't indulge in that 'say whatever comes into your head because I'm anonymous' style of communication that many turn specifically to blogs to fulfill. (er well except for the unfortunate incident over at 'ask and ye shall receive' ....no link given) I want to talk about my work because it occupies huge parts of my mind and heart (much to Himself's chagrin) but I don't want to offend anybody...even unintentionally.

Bugger. Best not blog then.

My intellect and world experience tells me that I should take down my photo on the sidebar if I want to talk about work. The other option is don't talk about work.

Anyone got a third option or some sage advice?????