I remember talking to a good friend of mine once upon a time who works as a schoolteacher in a small town in the US. The topic of marijuana came up, and I mentioned that a friend had moved into a new apartment and as soon as we got to the top floor to move him in the sweet smell of ganja came wafting through the air from one of his neighbors. My friend the schoolteacher was amazed, and commented that if his apartment ever smelled of pot he would probably be fired.

Personally, I consider that disgusting. What we do in our free time should be unrelated to our job. If smoking marijuana was something that made it’s way into his workday then I would totally understand their terminating him, but if on a Saturday night in the comfort of his own home he chose to gnaw on a bong for a little while, how is that anyone’s business but his? Granted, the Americans are busy fighting their terribly important War On Drugs, which I’m certain at any moment will be deemed a huge success, but still the notion strikes me as ridiculous.

How much control over our lives should work have? It’s difficult to say. Yes, a teacher is very much a role model to their students, and the argument could easily be made that their personal lives could have a very direct impact on a student. If a teacher was arrested for drug use or stoned in a mall and the students found out, this could be detrimental. But still, the teacher is an autonomous person at the end of the day who should not be defined by their job. Where is the line between my life and my work to be drawn?

This morning I read an entry on PA Myers’ blog Pharyngulaabout a comedian named Chatherine Deveny who made an unfortunately tasteless remark intended in humor on her Twitter account. For this, she lost her job as a writer for the Melbourne Age newspaper. And that was the thing that made me start thinking about the basis of this blog post, so let’s sit back and watch Jim ramble.

Me, I think that’s a bullshit move on the Melbourne Age’s part. They hired her as a comedian knowing that she was an abrasive person as part of her selling quality. I think they’re well within their rights to have done this because of the nature of their relationship and their obvious requirement to protect the reputation of their newspaper, but it still comes down to an act of cowardice. They knew when they entered the arrangement that Catherine was a bit of a mouthpiece. And part of me thinks that you do get what you pay for. They hired her presumably because of her edgy quality as a means to sell newspapers, and sell them she has.

Yes, it’s very true that we’re living in a very connected world, and social media tools have their down side as well. I know I’ve said things on this blog that would make some of my friends, girlfriends, family, and coworkers very offended. But at what point does that progress to something that impacts my workplace? Granted, if I posted something saying that in eight days the company I work for (let’s call it Superco) will be implementing a brand new state of the art oil rig on the surface of Venus complete with diagrams and decision records, then I’d have actually hurt the company by revealing trade secrets and should be reprimanded. If I was doing standup comedy and talked about how lame Superco was (even if I didn’t identify them) then I’d have actually hurt them by speaking ill of them to people who at the very least could speculate which company we were talking about. But if in my free time I posted on Twitter that I thought Albert Einstein was pure sexy beast, that simply doesn’t impact their bottom line.

What concerns me about all of this is the same old song and dance. The truth is we rely on companies to pay our way, and we make all sorts of concessions and sacrifices for them in return. That’s the economic reality that most of us life through; we work to earn money to pay for the lives we wish to lead. And I’m more than willing to make those concessions and sacrifices so long as they keep paying me. But we have to ask ourselves just how far into our lives we’re willing to let them get.

For me, I learned my lesson a long time ago. I was working full time as a consultant putting in 200 hours a month and getting paid (badly) for 160 of them, plus I was teaching full time getting paid (badly) for about half the hours I was actually working. I came to realize that I was a fool, I was letting my life and all the things I wanted to do with it fade into the background so that I could work more, and it was getting me nowhere. I chose to quit the teaching job, switch to a consulting relationship with my employer, and cut back on the work I was doing. I was still a great resource, just one that had a much more harmonious balance in his life. I am not my job any more than I am this blog, my bands, or any of the myriad things I do. I am me, and that really is not negotiable. For those eight or so hours a day five days a week, I will gladly do the best for you, and I will not, either within the confines of the job or outside it, do anything to disrupt or damage your business, but I’d appreciate it if you showed me the same courtesy. And thankfully my real-life clients actually do exactly that.

And for the record, there is no Superco, none of my clients have considered an oil rig on the surface of Venus, and despite that moustache, I do not find Albert Einstein remotely sexy.

Please don’t fire me.

Jim