On Jan. 28, Mark Jen was fired. He joins a growing list of people who lost their jobs over their blogs. But Jen’s case has garnered more attention than others, because he worked at Google, a company beloved by many bloggers. Recently, Gelf spoke to Jen at a San Francisco coffee shop.
Mark Jen started work at Google on January 17, and posted his first comments on his new blog almost immediately. As far as Jen was concerned, the blog was for his girlfriend and a few others to read—he posted a link to it in his America Online user profile, but never got more than a hundred hits per post. Until, that is, Nathan Weinberg of the blog InsideGoogle found the site, and bloggers started linking to Jen’s revealing posts about adjusting to life at Google. Less than a month later, Jen is an out-of-work internet celebrity.
Jen, an earnest 22-year-old, had gotten a job at Microsoft right after earning his degree in computer engineering from the University of Michigan, but after 18 months, he left Redmond, Wash., for what he thought were the greener pastures of Google. “I thought Microsoft had kind of stalled out,” he said. “In general, they were slower to react to changes.” Jen was leaving his Microsoft job as a program manager to join Google, which he thought would be more flexible. He knew his salary wouldn't change much, but he had no idea where he was going to be assigned. He ended up in Google’s AdSense division, which provides targeted ads to websites (including gelf) based on the content of those sites.
During his first week on the job, Jen had a lot to say on his blog about Google’s policies, especially as they compared to what he had experienced at Microsoft. For example, he noted that a lot of Google’s benefits were “thinly veiled timesavers to keep you at work.” He was also treated to Google’s ski weekend retreat at Squaw, and blogged a little bit about the atmosphere there. But when he got back, he was called into the office of one of his managers. (Jen won’t say who the manager is. When asked why, Jen said, "I want to be fair. I don't want to put anyone into the limelight that doesn't want to be there.")
At this point, even though he was getting more hits on his blog, Jen claims he still didn’t know that his posts were being picked up by bigger sites. It was only after talking informally with the manager that he realized that he might be causing trouble for the company. “The guy said, ‘There’s something going on with your blog. Why don’t you take it down,’" said Jen. "So I immediately unpublished the posts.”
Once Jen’s site went dark, though, other bloggers noticed immediately, and started asking lots of questions. Jen says he was then asked by the Google higher-ups to repost his previous entries, but to take out any sensitive material relating to finances or Google products (See some of his original posts here).
The sensitive material that Google management was referring to is not spectacular—almost all of it can be found on public records (try here, for example). One sentence that was taken out read, “Both Google's profits and revenue are growing at an unprecedented rate.”
“At Microsoft I could have said, ‘We’re doing great and we’ve got great products,’ but it just so happens that Google is very strict about what they want us to do," Jen said. Indeed, several bloggers besides Jen have written (and continue to write) about life inside the other tech giants. For instance, see Robert Scoble’s page about life at Microsoft.
But Google is different. Even their PR people—who are trained to get publicity for the company—are secretive about the goings-on inside the Googleplex. Google representatives declined to comment for this article, beyond stating that Jen is no longer a Google employee.
Google’s secrecy gives it an aura that both helps it and hurts it. On the one hand, the mystery about the inner workings of the successful company has helped fuel the favorable, often-deferential media coverage. On the other hand, there’s an army of bloggers who jump on the chance to dig up dirt about Google.
Back at the Googleplex, Mark Jen started asking around about Google’s policy on blogging (it turns out there was none) and reread the non-disclosure agreement he had signed on the first day. Then he started blogging again—no financial details this time.
That Friday, the same manager Jen had talked with previously called Jen back into his office. A human-resources officer was in the room when Jen entered. It was a termination meeting. “I was shocked,” said Jen. “I asked why.”
“At first, they beat around the bush,” Jen said. “But then they told me my blog had upset people and that I wasn’t a good fit. I asked them if there was anything I could do to change their minds, but it was a one-sided conversation. So I said ‘I’ll see you guys later.’ ”
Even now, weeks after he was terminated, Jen doesn’t know what led Google management to decide to fire him even after he had complied with their requests. He says there was some speculation that that there was a movement among Google employees to have him gone, but there is no evidence to back that up. Though Google didn’t give him much in the way of a termination package, he says they didn’t make him sign a nondefamation agreement.
Which means, of course, that Jen can continue to blog and talk about his ordeal, though he has little interest in talking about Google’s policies, and has no plans to sue for wrongful termination. He doesn’t even feel very bitter about being fired. “I’m not going to say I’m the smartest guy, but I recognize I made mistakes,” he said.
When Jen was fired for blogging, some of the biggest blogs took notice. Even Slashdot wondered whether the story was true. In order to understand the buzz this story created, it’s necessary to understand how preoccupied many tech bloggers are with giants like Microsoft and Google. Though many decry such companies as “evil empires” that control their online applications, readers cannot seem to learn enough about them. After Jen was fired, his blog was inundated with posts berating him for losing a dream job.
Jen’s site now has so many visitors that he has enrolled it in Google’s AdSense to display relevant ads. He claims that he is donating all of the profits to charity, including his first check—one hundred dollars—to a Celiac disease charity one of his readers alerted him to. But, of course, Jen is not entirely altruistic in his moment in the spotlight. He plans to use his internet celebrity status to find himself a new job; indeed, he has gotten several offers already, though he won’t say from which companies. If his future employers wanted him to, Jen says he would give up his blog.
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