Thursday 2 August 2012

The Anonymous Blog

I was recently contacted by a woman working in construction with a proposition; she wanted to know if Constructing Equality would host an anonymous blog. The idea behind this had come from a series of recent experiences that she felt may have been detrimental to her career but she was unsure what to do about them. It wasn’t so much that she was looking for answers but more of a place to let of steam, talks about the behaviour she had encountered and interact with others who have had similar experiences. Whilst it is unfortunate that she does not feel she can do this openly without fear of reprisal, I understand the concern.

And so we agreed, from next month we shall be hosting the anonymous blog a place where people, and we do mean people of any age, sex, race, ability etc can write a blog post which we will host,  we  do have some rules and reasons though - here are five of each.

Reasons

  • To create a space for people to talk about their experiences without fear of reproach - We will monitor comments and if you wish to comment anonymously you can email Matt@constructingequality.co.uk and we will upload your comments for you.
  • To give companies greater insight – We don’t see this as a negative space rather a resource to find out how people are really experiencing industry so you can see if those experiences are occurring in your workplace.
  • To give individuals greater insight – Its quite normal to misunderstand the affect we can have on people, a comment, joke or action may seem harmless to us but be a source of frustration or pain for someone else. By reading the blogs you can see the other side of the story and consider how you can be a better colleague/manager/leader. We are none of us perfect and can all stand to learn a little from empathy.
  • To see how others experience industry – For a long time when I worked in industry I felt I was alone in thinking that certain things were not quite right. It was only when I left and founded Constructing Equality that I found many people in industry felt the same way and were seeking the same changes. The Anonymous blog aims to give individuals the opportunity to see they are not alone in their thinking or experiences.
  •  To give a little bit of help – We will aim to signpost, give advice and links after each blog post to allow the writers and readers a chance to make better the situation. We know there will be times when there is nothing we can do, which is when we hope you the reader will provide support and encouragement.

And the Rules

  • No Names – not your or anyone else’s, we don’t feel it’s fair for people to use anonymity to have a dig.
  •  Many Anonymity – If you want to write a blog you can email it to us, we won’t release your identity and everything you say will be treated with respect.
  •  Context – To make the blog useful it needs context, so try and tell us as much detail as possible without saying so much you give yourself away.
  •  Understand our time – We would love to be able to spend more time supporting individuals in the sector, and whilst we give up 10% of our resource to none income based supportive initiatives we can’t guarantee we will be able to respond straight away or provide ongoing support. We will do what we can though – so please be patient.
  • Be nice – writing the blogs or comments. Don’t insult or demeaned anyone. I do wish I didn’t have to write this but I’ve seen some fairly rude comments come off the back off my blogs in recent years so I feel I must. Anything offensive will be taken down.

We see this as a tool for industry and want you to use it as your own, if you want to add rules, groups or network through this please let me know and we shall do what we can to support you.

Happy Building

Chrissi