You've probably heard a workplace revenge story before... where an ex-employee pulls a stunt to inflict revenge on a former employer.

An interesting online reputation management issue is company "shadow" sites, where current employees of a company create an anonymous website to communicate on. They offer each other counsel and moral support, and they also try to expose their grievances against the company.

I recently came across a revenge site published by employees of a financial services firm. On the anonymous forum, they describe the operation as glorified telemarketing scam. They also accuse the management of using dramatic psychological terror tactics to keep them productive and afraid. (Sorry, but I can't link to revenge sites.)

It gets nasty: it spells out details of managerial sexual affairs and drug habits, as well as internal company business processes.

An IRS employee found the site and posted, saying she had sneaking suspicious about this company, and that the site confirmed what she thought.

The lesson: it's all transparent now. We have to be on our best behavior because anyone can leave "feedback" for the world to see. Lawsuits, coverups, payoffs, intimidation, and "no one will ever find out" thinking is quickly becoming a thing of the past, thanks to the open nature of the internet.

The scary thing about this new openness is there is no fact-checking or human editorial control, just cold algorithmic ranking and primitive semantic analysis done search engine computers.

Reputation Management Song

So, here's a little online reputation management song I just wrote. It's sung to the tune of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town"

You better not scam,
You better not lie,
You better not steal - I'm telling you why:
Goo-gle bot is watchin' your brand.

He's making an index,
keeping it diverse
Gonna tell the world who "sucks" (or even worse)...
Goo-gle bot's defining, your brand!

He knows if there's been cheating,
He knows if you're a fake,
It's all out in the open now...
So be good for reputation's sake!

Soooo... You better not shaft,
You better not spy,
You better not fleece - I'm telling you why:
Goo-gle bot will tell the whole town!
Goo-gle bot will tell the whole town!

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