Real-life Blogging: The Senator and the Pizza Delivery Girl (Part 1)

(www.businessandblogging.com) Recently Laura wrote a post asking the question Would You Fire an Employee who Blogged?  

Recently I read about a small business, Nicolitalia,  that had to answer that question- when their pizza delivery employee wrote a blog post about her difficult customer – Utah State Senator, Curt Bramble.

It seems that Sen. Bramble got upset when 24 year old Anna Eagar refused to take a check for his $30 pizza delivery.  She offered to take cash or credit per the store policy.  But State Senator Bramble apparently made her wait, still holding the pizza, while he called the store and yelled at her boss for several minutes for not making an exception for his check.  The store owner finally relented and agreed to take the check, Bramble paid for the pizza (with a credit card!) and finally allowed Anna to go on her way.

Later that night, Anna wrote a blog post about her experience.

And then, as sometimes happens in the blogosphere – everything started happening very quickly.

209 readers commented on her post. Blog after blog linked to Anna’s story.  Newspapers picked it up and published.  TV reporters called her house and asked for an interview.

Anna, the Senator and the small, family-owned pizzaria all were getting their 15 minutes of fame – and it wasn’t always good.

So, did Nicolitalia fire Anna for blogging?

No.  They supported her right to blog even though it caused them some embarrassment.

Did Anna regret writing the post?

Perhaps. She did write a letter and a post apologizing to the State Senator.

And did the Senator apologize?

Nope.

(Apparently no one has told the Senator that when you google “Senator Curt Bramble” the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th entries are all unflattering articles about his run-in with Anna!  His own senate Bio is number 5!)

photo credit: mquest foto