I was shocked to learn that my recent blog on company monitoring of
its employees got more than 3,000 visits in its first few hours.  In
the blog I commented on the necessity of being very careful in your use
of electronic communication in the work setting, and laid out some
rather nasty statistics. 

As a result, I had an intriguing conversation and did a podcast
for Phil Bowerman, the strategy and marketing guy for Transparency
Revolution.  As part of our conversation, not on the podcast, we talked
about the problems and dangers some face in using electronic media in
the work setting.  He’d read my blog and had a great recommendation for
what you should and what you shouldn’t publish, whether e-mail or any of
the electronic media.  Since Phil lives in the glorious state of
Colorado (wkhere we spent 10 wonderful years), he calls the process
“prairie dogging.”  (Visualize prairie dogs standing on their hind
legs.) With Phil’s permission, I’m publishing the test here.

Prairie-dogging:  Don’t publish anything you wouldn’t be comfortable standing up in your cubicle and shouting out to everyone.

Phil agreed that the better approach is
face-to-face or phone, recognizing that Gen-Yers are resistant to phone
use.  Still, this is all about street smarts.  Anything and everything
in print can come back to haunt you.