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Work and non-work
If you are following a person's digital trail and you learn that they spend Saturdays submitting to a dominatrix and Sundays blogging about the relationship and posting photos of the interplay, what assumptions can you draw about that person's professional skills?None.
It's quite possible that a day of submission each week releases all the stress from the office and makes them an effective and productive employee. It's also quite possible that they are excellent cooks, loving parents, sensible drivers and terrible project managers.
Dismissing a candidate or an employee based on what you think (or what you think you know) about their sexuality deprives you of creative and intelligent employees. And whatever consensual sexual activity -- including publishing! -- they do on their own time and with their own equipment is truly none of your business.
Pardon me while I rant ...
I like the whole article, but I especially like the second sentence of this quote. "... What assumptions can you draw? None." None, got it? Employers should quit assuming that people having sex (gasp!) and talking about it to other people somehow reflects poorly on their judgement.
I like to program in Lisp. I like to read science fiction. I like to listen to Mozart, Andrew Loyd Webber, Bach, Duran Duran, ABBA, Ace of Base, and many other bands and composers, while I work. (Note that I telecommute. :)
The fact that I like to do those things and my employer doesn't shouldn't affect how my employer judges my work output.
Similarly, I think, for sex, exercise habits, tastes in art, and a host of other factors that have nothing to do with work.
Of course, sometimes tastes in art do have something to do with work, like if you work in an art magazine. And sometimes sex does, too -- but only if you work in a sex-related industry.
Speaking of sex and industry, I'll also note that, in my opinion, the simple fact that you work with children should not force upon you a requirement of total asexuality. Too many people seem to think it should. "Gosh, they had sex and blogged about it! And they're teachers! How horrible!" Get a grip.
Thinking further, this attitude seems like an extension of the attitude many people have about knowing their parents have sex. The train of thought emotion seems to be:
I don't want to know that my parents have sex.Thank you and good morning.
My children's teachers are essentially surrogate parents.
Ergo: I (really, really, really) don't want to know that my children's teachers have sex.Of any kind. With their spouses, or others, or anybody, I don't care. I don't want to know about it, or think about it, or be reminded of it in any way. And if they mention it -- and heaven help them if they mention it online -- I want them fired for having the temerity to remind me that they aren't asexual.