You’ve implemented protocols dealing with email and use of the Internet in the workplace, and created new company policies when camera cell phones and webcams emerged; think you’re on top of technology? Think again, say labor and employment attorneys at Miller Canfield. Here comes the blog.

In a survey conducted in January by the worldwide Employment Law Alliance, only about 15% of employers have specific policies addressing work-related blogging.

“Similar to Web sites, these easy-to-create online opinion pages are already everywhere—now numbering nearly 29 million and growing,” said Adam S. Forman, a principal at Miller Canfield. “The careless blogger can do more than embarrass a company, consume too much bandwidth, and fiddle away time. Like other forms of Internet communication in the workplace, blogging can open the door to liability.”

In the past few years, there’s been a dramatic increase in the number of highly publicized cases involving the discipline or discharge of workplace bloggers. Common reasons for termination include personal blogging on company time, bad-mouthing coworkers, divulging trade secrets through leaks or photos, and posting inappropriate content that’s in poor taste or sexual in nature.

Absent an employment contract or collective bargaining agreement, most private employees are “at will”—meaning they can be discharged at any time for any reason that doesn’t violate state or federal law, or contradict public policy exceptions such as whistleblowing.

Forman pointed out, “Although careless bloggers may claim First Amendment rights to free speech as their defense, that constitutional right does not protect private-sector blogging.”

Is it possible to create a balanced policy that recognizes the growing popularity of blogging, yet restricts its use in the workplace? Miller Canfield offers some practical options.

• Prohibit all blogging on work time.

• Control the use of workplace resources and equipment for blogging.

• Ban certain blog content. For example, prohibit employees from blogging about the company or workplace, identifying their place of employment, or using the corporate logo or trademark.

• Bar the disclosure of confidential or proprietary information and discussion of future product or business partners and clients.

• Remind employees that you, as an employer, reserve the right to monitor workplace activity on the computer and Internet. Include a disclaimer in your policy that spells out the consequences of a violation.

Many companies are taking a “can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em” approach. GM, Boeing, Microsoft, and others have created their own official corporate or quasi-official blogs, authored by employees. These employer-sponsored blogs can be used to improve the flow of information among employees and clarify misrepresentations.

“Regardless of whether the corporate blogging business is for you, it’s important to amend current company policies and address this latest Internet invasion,” said Forman.

All About Blogs

• Blog is short for Weblog, an online diary or personal chronological log of thoughts published on a Web page.

• Blogging is the act of authoring, maintaining, or adding content to an existing blog.

• New entries to blogs are called posts. They appear at the top of a Weblog and descend on screen in reverse chronological order.

• Most blogs contain a title, body (or the main content of the post), and a permalink (the permanent Web address for each post, including the date and time of that post).

• Blogs are primarily one-way communications, but they may also include comments added by readers.

• Many blogs also contain links to other related sites—news stories, commentaries, photos, and video or audio clips.

• Blogs in the aggregate make up the blogosphere, or collective conversation.

• The blogosphere is now one of the fastest growing areas of Internet content. Approximately 75,000 new blogs pop up each day.

The 350-attorney law firm of Miller, Canfield, Paddock and Stone, P.L.C. was established in Detroit in 1852 and has offices in Ann Arbor, Detroit, Grand Rapids, Howell, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Monroe, Saginaw, and Troy, Michigan. Other offices are located in New York City, Naples and Pensacola, Florida, Windsor, Ontario, and in Gdynia, Warsaw, and Wroclaw, Poland.