Jeremy Pepper notes that Alaska Airlines employees are aledgedly posting nasty comments in that guy-who-experienced-airplane-decompression-and-wrote-about-it’s blog. I say aledgedly because I’m still not sure an Alaska Airlines employee wrote those comments (it does look like it, though, which presents a PR problem either way).
Pepper renews his stance that companies should have a blogging policy.
Personally, if I were in charge of Alaska I’d publicly reprimand these employees and force them to go through PR training.
Huh? A blogger saying to reprimand employees for mouthing off on the Internet? (I almost recommended firing these employees, but that’d cause Alaska even more bad publicity, so I wouldn’t do that).
Yes.
Again. If you are a company employee you must be professional in your dealings with the public. Even when you think you’re being anonymous. Even when you’re posting on what you think is your own time.
These people were not smart. And, worse of all, they used company equipment to post (if the facts are what they seem).
At Microsoft we have a blogging policy. It’s simply “be smart.” Or, if that isn’t clear enough: “don’t be stupid.”
These comments are clearly covered by this policy.
I highly recommend to our employees to always be transparent about who they work for and to always behave in a way that’ll look great on the front page of the New York Times cause that’s probably where these will end up (they’ve already been in USA Today, among other places).
That’s a major part of being smart when posting on the Internet.
Oh, and if Alaska had a few “real” blogs of their own, we’d be able to see what “real” employees think about this kind of behavior and they might have been able to head this off. Instead, it’s just growing and growing (and getting worse cause Alaska doesn’t seem like they are doing anything about it).
Aside, but since we’re talking about Alaska Airlines. Why does Alaska put religious literature on my meal plate everytime I fly? I thought they were a public company? Is that something a public company should do? I can understand a private company like In-N-Out doing that (they put bible verse identifiers underneath their softdrink cups) but I think it’s inappropriate for Alaska to do, especially since Alaska isn’t profitable — they should take the printing costs and try to reduce their budget deficits. My own opinion, of course.
