First of all it’s a question mark in the title, I’m not fired. But if you’re not careful, you could be! It’s been a long time since I started using twitter (http://herebeforeyou.com/ploem) and it’s the first time I’m thinking of protecting my updates. A couple of weeks ago we had a little incident at work which was a consequence of tweets posted by several employees (including me) about a certain suppliers service. Couple of days ago I read two very alike tweets of people who had similar experiences, one which resulted in almost losing the job.

I think everybody should decide for himself whether to protect his twitter account or not. Just know if you don’t…

…your tweets will appear in a public timeline which anyone has access to (and yes, you’d be surprised but suppliers, clients, management,… read these kinda things whether coincidencial or on purpose).

…your tweets can be found months, even years after you posted them

…maybe after you’ve deleted them they were picked up on other sites too (facebook etc).

…they will appear in twitter’s search results so it’s not that hard to find out who said something about anyone/anything

If you choose not to protect your account (maybe after you’ve read L4X9’s article), maybe these tips can help you not to get fired;)

1) never post critics or inside information (or anything that can be interpreted as critics/secret info) about your own work environment (colleagues, managers, products, company,..)

2) in any way don’t ever post something that can jeopardize the company’s or/and your relationships with suppliers, clients, consultants, providers,…

3) Stay positive!! Positive is good. People will even appreciate your support.

(In addition - protect my updates on twitter)