Is it Harder to Blog Non-Anonymously in HR?

As you may have heard, HR Wench is out of the anonymous closet. She’s a fellow Portlander so I’ve been encouraging her to reveal herself but for slightly selfish reasons. But for every anonymous HR person revealing their true identity, there are probably three more starting blogs under the shroud of secrecy. Why does this happen?

I guess it is more of a rhetorical question. I know why HR people start blogs anonymously. I was one of those people so I understand the thinking behind it. It is very simple from where I was:

1. I am a bit paranoid. I don’t want my bosses or my employees to read about this but my wife is tired of hearing me talk about HR stuff. I’ll do it anonymously.
2. Writing anonymously gives me more freedom to write as I please including making fun of co-workers or even my boss. Woohoo!
3. I am a representative for my company so I speak for them. My blog will be boring if I have to limit myself to stuff the company approves.
4. If I blog openly, it could open all kinds of legal traps. Perhaps I say I am against so and so act and then an issue comes up at work and they find my blog. So much for any good faith effort claim!

And so on. There are probably a million different little reasons to blog anonymously as an HR pro. To me, there is one good reason to blog openly with your name:

Your message is about you (not your company) and if the message is about you, then the only way you can be authentic is to blog under your name.

To me, authenticity was important. It was putting my name behind my words and that was important enough for me to take the leap. Not to say that putting your name on your blog gives you instant authenticity (it doesn’t) but it does give you that potential.  And there are some terrific anonymous HR bloggers out there but people will always wonder who is that person behind the web page?

Some people may also dispute that a blog is about you. They are wrong. You may not be the topic but the blog is about what you think about those topics, how you react to different topics, how you interact with commenters, etc… The blog is YOU. Topic may vary.

But for HR people, it is a difficult decision and I struggled with it as well. I think it hinged on the fact that my employees/boss would be trying to read into it or that outsiders would try to read into what my company was doing. HR is not PR though and we (should be) as active as any other department in making sure that company is going in the right direction and be able to have open conversations. I put three rules in my head that made blogging as an open HR person easy:

1. Nobody at work would be surprised at my blog entries. This required me to be open with my superiors and employees about what I was thinking. It brought a new level of accountability to the table. So when we discuss an issue at a meeting and they see that I blog about a similar issue, they don’t see something contradictory.
2. Nobody comes to my blog for breaking news. At least about layoffs or other HR related things. While you might find me talking about a product or something cool we are doing, working on staffing plans is part of my job and people should be channeling official sources for that sort of information. I don’t do spin well so I won’t try on my blog.
3. Don’t use negative examples from work. This is obviously political but I think it is necessary. Nobody should be the “Bob” in a bad supervisor example. If they can identify themselves from your example, you shouldn’t use it. Most of the bad stories in my blog come from other people who e-mail me or talk to me about their work.

I am all for HR bloggers making themselves known and I am happy to talk about my experience in even greater detail of going from anonymous to open.