Watch what you say (or do) as it could come back at ‘cha.

[Photo Source: Amazon]

Ellen Simonetti’s blog and her life received LOTS of attention when Delta Airlines fired her for “inappropriate photos” that were posted on her blog back in 2004. Since that time, Simonetti has written a book, escalated (somewhat) to celebrity status and is still blogging about her life…as a fired flight attendant.

Good Lemonade
She has taken what was supposed to be a “bad” situation and made it work out in her favor. Ellen capitalized on the incident and made a business out of it. This flight-attendant-turned-business-woman:

• Wrote a book
• Continued blogging (her site boasts 3,099,926 visitors since January 11th, 2004)
• Made guest interview appearances on the Montel Show, the O’Reilly factor and has been intereviewed by the folks at Psychology Today magazine
• Is still blogging and capitalizing on her “situation”

No Fair Play
Her firing was a hot topic on the ‘net with both sides of the spectrum debating whether or not her firing was premature and/or warranted. She has been compared to that-other-fired-employee-for-having-a-blog, Dooce, (who by the way is HIL-A-RIOUS!), although Dooce’s blogging style seems to be vastly different than Simonetti’s.

But what I find mildly interesting is the things that are said on the Internet and the repercussions that are incurred by such actions:

Should a person be held responsible for their blogging life?

Now, let me clarify that here. I don’t mean blogging on personally damaging or hurtful things or divulging company’s secrets. I mean plain ‘ol simple blogging – just as Ellen was doing. I think perhaps I may be inclined to agree with the idea that the airline may have in fact acted prematurely. What’s also interesting is something that else that the news article mentioned about Ellen:

“I found pictures of male Delta flight attendants and pilots on Match.com in their uniforms with their ‘turn-ons and turn offs’ listed. And some of them even mentioned they worked for Delta,” she says. Yet the airline apparently took no action against them. Because Delta flight attendants don’t have a union, she hired a private lawyer in an attempt to get her job back.

Blog On
Now, don’t get me started on the obvious difference in discipline between the two sexes.

OK, you got me started. Here goes.

Although I may lean towards Ellen’s actions being “inappropriate”, I also think that BOTH males and females should have been disciplined accordingly as a result of BOTH of their actions. After all, what did Ellen do that the men did not do? Why is Ellen only being penalized? Was it because her pictures were more provocative and sexier? Was it because the boys were playing and didn’t get caught by the bosses? Or perhaps the boys were the ones that turned the girl in because she wouldn’t play the way they wanted her too.

OK, there, I got that out. Back to the issue.

Blogging is a form of free speech and journalism combined. It has just recently (in the past few years) started to get the respect and professional approach that it deserves. Although actions like what Ellen did do deserve some attention and discipline, firing her may not have been the right thing to do. It set them up for a lawsuit and left a disparaging image with the general public (I never liked Delta anyway). In addition to that, it absolutely enraged other bloggers, inflicting the wrath of the Blog Police, incurring their dooming reviews and write-ups on Delta’s actions. I guess they heard that!

When you blog, you should be mindful of the things you say, who those words will affect and not giving out information that is truly company secrets. In this case, Ellen didn’t do any of those things. She just took a couple of sexy pictures, talked about her stressful life of “coffee, tea or milk” and blogged about her daily doings. I totally get that. I do it all the time myself. (Check my blog later when my sexy pictures go up!)

Does Ellen Need Any Help?
I’m happy that Ellen found her “niche” in the business world and has made a difference in things. Hopefully. I’ll be watching her blog to see if she is recompensed for the way she was treated by the airline, and, if the airline will offer some, if ANY type of apology to her for their behavior. We’ll wait and see. In the meantime, I think I’ll contact her and see if I can get an interview with her – and to see if we can do a BFF sexy friends photo shoot with Sexy Stewardess’ BFF Unplugged magazine.

Or maybe I’ll just settle for getting a photo shoot with Semi-Sexy Mom’s Today magazine.

Whatever.

© 2008 – Bridget Wright

Post from: EveryJoe

Delta Airlines Attendant-Turned-Blogger: “The Queen of Sky” – Updates Us On Her Life