"My boss said 'two of your female co-workers went to your website and were offended by your stories'."

Six weeks into the training, my boss calls me into his office out of the blue and says, "I don't like having to do this, but we're going to have to terminate your position." And of course my first question is "Why?" and he says, "I can't tell you until I talk to our lawyers."

I was thinking this was really weird. He left me hanging for three days. Finally he said, "It has to do with your personal Web page." I said, "Please explain." He said, "Well, you publish fiction on your Web page. Two of your female co-workers went to your website and were offended by your stories. Because of the nature of your stories, they are uncomfortable working with you. Basically, they gave me an ultimatum, either he goes or we go." Obviously, I left. I was terminated.

SCHINDLER: Do you think this could have happened if your fiction had been in a newspaper or magazine and not on your website?
BARRETT: Absolutely not. My fiction is no different than what you'd find in your local bookstore and picked up a Stephen King novel. It's no different.

"My theory is that my co-workers were afraid of the new technology. They didn't understand it."

SCHINDLER: What do you suppose it is about the medium of the Web that made this hard for your co-workers to accept?
BARRETT: My theory is that my co-workers were afraid of the new technology. They didn't understand it, therefore they were afraid of it. No matter how much training I gave them, they were still afraid of it. They had heard all the stories about pornography and violence and people breaking into websites, and they didn't want to handle it. My best guess is they took the easy way out to get rid of the problem. If I'm the problem, get rid of the problem. Then they don't have to worry about it anymore.

SCHINDLER: You've been advised that this is legal?
BARRETT: I have spoken to numerous lawyers, some of them specializing in employment law. They have said my former employer did nothing wrong; they were perfectly within their right to terminate me for that particular reason. C O N T I N U E D . . . 2 of 2
SCHINDLER: What advice do you have for others?
BARRETT: If you think your fiction is controversial, if you think your writing is going to stir the pot, you might be forewarned. You might want to run that by your current employer. I value my financial security much much more than I value my freedom of speech. I know that sounds strange, but that's the truth.

If you're going to publish your fiction online, and your income is currently coming from a different source, you might be forewarned to be sure that there is no conflict between your personal life and your professional life. That includes what you publish on a personal website.

SCHINDLER: You have a new job. How hard was it to find that? Did this incident affect your job hunt?
BARRETT: Somewhat. Yes and no. The job I have now, I can't disclose. It is a great job. I really enjoy it. They came to me. They found me on the Internet. They said, "We want to interview you. We want to hire you. We're interested."

They were unaware of my situation with my former employer. When I went to the first interview, I said to the human resources person, "Listen, I'm going to be frank with you. This is what I am coming from," I spelled it all out completely. I said "This is how I feel about it. Do you have a problem with it?"

She thought about it for a few minutes. Talked to some other people in human resources for about 10 minutes, came back and said, "We don't have a problem with it."

"There was one day when I could hear it go around the office. People were whispering and things, 'Check it out'."

SCHINDLER: If you could do it over again, would you not mention your personal URL to anyone at work?
BARRETT: Probably not. I was working for my current employer for three weeks. Someone stumbled across my personal site. There was one day when I could hear it go around the office. People were whispering and things, "Check it out." No one at my current employment has any problem with my personal website. Nobody. In fact, they compliment me on it.

SCHINDLER: Should you be able to put anything you want on your personal website without consequences to your professional career?
BARRETT: I am sure. Definitely.