I don’t know why, but I was thinking today about how I used to write about my work adventures (and misadventures) for many years, but I stopped. Why wouldn’t you innocently want to write about it? You spend 1/3 of your day or more at the office. That may not sound like exciting material, but if you’re a terrible comedian like me, you can find the comedy gold.
Did I ever write about coworkers though? Not ever in a bad way. Back then, I was friends with many of my coworkers. We often went out to eat lunch during the day, or dinner and drinks after work. I also used to travel a lot more, and oftentimes my traveling companions were a fun bunch. Not all, but enough people. I remember when I travelled to India in 2004, I was writing and posting photos at night from the hotel room. Back in NY, my coworkers (and some of their family!) actually followed our documented exploits.
These days, it’s not worth the risk. Over the years, employees have gotten in trouble for real and perceived “bad behavior.” There are people in every department who will look for the missteps and use what they can against you.
As the Ipe family grew in size, I didn’t have an appetite for the risk of writing something that some jerk-off could later attempt to leverage.
I think sometime around there is also when I lost a little interest in blogging so frequently. I’m an open person. This site was a place to be open and talk about what I wanted to talk about, share what I wanted to share with friends and family. When I had to self-censor, I lost a little fire in me.
This year, I’m back to blogging every day or so. I continue to avoid talking about work, unless it’s as benign as can be. You know, there’s plenty going on in our lives that finding content isn’t a problem. I don’t want to rely on Facebook or Twitter to remember what was going on in my life years from now. This website can still be a place to do that.
