I’ve just had a verbal warning.
My boss found out about petite anglaise. He was looking for a document on my pc after I had left last night. I thought I had closed down my computer. I hadn’t. He took a call while he was sitting at my desk and needed to look something up on the internet. Unfortunately the site name he typed in tried to auto-complete to http://www.petiteanglaise.com, and his curiosity was aroused.
He actually said he rather liked it. He used the words “impressive”, “talented” and “well-written” and we even touched briefly on the idea of setting up some sort of company blog, maintained by yours truly.
But then his tone changed, and he got down to the nitty gritty.
Blogging on company time is “unacceptable”. I clearly don’t have enough to do and more work will be found, to keep me busy. Access to my server’s IP has been blocked, to stop me being so much as tempted to look at my comments. I am posting this by email, so I hope it works okay.
As for my job, well, I’m on probation.
I will delete this post later today (the IP block works for him too, but I don’t want him reading it when he gets home), and petite anglaise may have to move house and change name.
Bear with me.
about
books
press
fbk
petite anglaise 
Oh no! You poor thing. As if you didn’t have enough to worry about with Mr Frog’s job situation. I hope your techie skills will enable you to revise your cyber-identity in a way that your boss can’t find – but we can! And if you have to stop blogging for a while, don’t worry, we’ll all still be here when you get back. Take care of yourself.
Comment by Zinnia Cyclamen — April 1, 2005 @ 11:07 am
Email me your new url please if you change. You’re my favourite blog. You could change the name to a French dialect. That’d keep you recognisable to those in the know.
Comment by Claire — April 1, 2005 @ 11:12 am
:shock:
Comment by Coquette — April 1, 2005 @ 12:29 pm
Bummer …
Comment by Hairy — April 1, 2005 @ 12:31 pm
Hello,
I am also interested by your new url.
Good luck for all.
Marie Hélène
Comment by Marie-Hélène — April 1, 2005 @ 12:51 pm
whoops! I hope your employer has a suitably British sense of humour and forgives you. Such a shame… I’ve only discovered your blog recently and really like it. Hope you find an alternative soon, we’ll find you wherever you are!
Comment by l'autre — April 1, 2005 @ 1:01 pm
bad luck. I hope everything will turn out well for you. Please keep us updated for the new url !
Comment by Jany — April 1, 2005 @ 1:13 pm
I think it’s becoming almost an occupational hazard these days. I wish you well.:neutral:
Comment by Greavsie — April 1, 2005 @ 1:23 pm
You perhaps should ask him if you would be allowed to access your site during lunch-break… most IP Blockers can have ‘windows’ set in them for stuff like that.
Using your e-mail to post may be technically good – but it’s bound to get back to your boss… and there’ll be trouble!:roll:
Comment by GriffMG — April 1, 2005 @ 1:24 pm
Oops. :???:
At least it sounds as if your boss took it alright. I mean, you didn’t get dooced.
Although, I don’t think France has had its own dooce as of yet (or maybe they have?). You could get a book deal, go on Ruquier’s show, and everything!
Or, you know, you could keep your job. That works too.
Comment by kim — April 1, 2005 @ 1:26 pm
Oh petite what are you going to do?? Move?? Please also send me your new URL if you do:idea:…you are my favorite blog! It’s like a drug…NEED.MORE.PETITE.
Comment by sammy — April 1, 2005 @ 1:32 pm
Is it a “poisson d’avril” ? :shock:
(if not please send me you’re new url !!)
Comment by kiara — April 1, 2005 @ 1:44 pm
Changing the URL will not solve this problem. He found the current one by accident, he can just as well find the next one. The problem is blogging on office time, and the solution, as GriffMG says, is to set things so that you may blog on your lunchbreak. And BTW clean “petiteATgmail” out of your browser and/or office mail programme ASAP, his finding that would not help.
Comment by udge — April 1, 2005 @ 2:05 pm
Oh no!!:cry::shock:
Remind him that you’re the most efficient PA he’s ever had (keeping up the blog AND doing all your work), and that you never took time off to, for example, pump milk for your child (legally you could have had 30 minutes a day) and if that doesn’t work, tell him all your mates’ll be waiting at the gates ready for him…:evil:
Comment by suziboo — April 1, 2005 @ 2:13 pm
oooh. I think kiara’s on to something.
(And shame on me, for I warned David to “watch out for April Fish” this morning before he left, and I fell right in the trap)
Comment by kim — April 1, 2005 @ 2:14 pm
*smacking head* You’re brilliant, Petite! BRILLIANT.
Comment by Coquette — April 1, 2005 @ 2:21 pm
Unless this is really happening and then it TOTALLY SUCKS ASS (can I say “ass” in front of your boss? Just tell him I’m a rude American who doesn’t know any better), but we’ll get through it.
Comment by Coquette — April 1, 2005 @ 2:25 pm
Oh goodness! How embarrassing, but how lucky you got off with a warning and he was nice enough to compliment you. :)
I’d like the new URL, please! Changing url’s WILL save the most glaring problem – the problem of you wanting to censor yourself for fear of a boss that may try to read at home on his own time. *shiver*
I found that password protecting my blog has helped tremendously, which is another option!
Comment by Nikki — April 1, 2005 @ 2:27 pm
I’ve only recently discovered your site (amazing what you find when you’re on stage and have no work…) so if you change it, PLEASE tell…
no matter where petite goes, ur faithful blog readers will follow… :grin:
Comment by jenn — April 1, 2005 @ 2:32 pm
How to follow Chameleon? Can’t don’t; just to say sorry, what a bummer. And do keep going…xx
Comment by grannyp — April 1, 2005 @ 2:34 pm
I can’t believe that *you* are going to be dooced for your blog! I have always marveled at your scrupulously “clean” record of events that exclude your office life. Do you know how many people, your boss included, wastes productive time on the internet tracking down mundane, totally irrelevant personal information that doesn’t even enrich their own lives???? Those stats have to be out there somewhere! Go Girl! Get another URL and carry on!
Comment by Laura — April 1, 2005 @ 3:33 pm
I keep thinking what my employer would do if they knew I spent the better part of three days at work last week reading ALL of your archives. I love your blog and would like to be informed of it’s new url. Good luck!!
Comment by Prudie — April 1, 2005 @ 3:42 pm
Oh no! What a shame for you. Please don’t disappear totally – I’m an avid reader these days… Makes me glad I’m a grad student – no boss as yet… :???:
Comment by Kitchen Witch — April 1, 2005 @ 3:45 pm
That stinks! At my last job I couldn’t keep myself off of the internet, but I just got a DSL line this week at the new job and I don’t ever do the blog thing from there. It’s hard – I mean the computer is right there! Let us all know where you are somehow!
Comment by Kathy — April 1, 2005 @ 4:07 pm
Gee, petite. If you are having us on for April Fool’s day, this is a good one. If not, this is not good at all. Like many others, I enjoy tremendously your stories of life with Mr. Frog and the Tadpole. I would be terribly sad if you had to go away. :cry:
Comment by Forest Green — April 1, 2005 @ 4:39 pm
Même chose que tout le monde, s’il te plaît tiens-moi au courant si tu changes d’adresses.
Et puis honnêtement, il me semble que ton boss en fait une montagne pour rien : tous les blogs que j’ai lu sont actualisés pendant les heures de bureaux ce qui n’empêche pas la productivité au boulot. Ãa fait un moment que t’as ce blog, on dirait qu’il ne s’est pas plaint de ta façon de travailler, alors où est le problème? En plus tous ceux qui sont devant un ordinateur en profitent pour envoyer des mails, lire des journaux etc. et il doit le savoir parce que certainement il doit être le premier à profiter des avantages d’avoir un ordinateur connecté à internet.
Je me demandais aussi combien de personnes dans ton entourage sont au courant pour petite anglaise?
Bon, j’espère que la situation va se régler. Tes fidèles lecteurs te suivront quel que soit l’URL
(sorry for posting in French, but I generally need a loooot of time to write in English)
Comment by KitKat — April 1, 2005 @ 4:42 pm
Well what a shame, I’d just started blogging and discovered you. I was analysing the blog design scheme and why it worked so well.
Does it really take so much time to blog at work? Maybe on a day like this when there are a lot of comments to read? But who caused that?
It’s quieter than chatting at the photocopier or kitchen. No one can work 100% all the time.
Comment by helene — April 1, 2005 @ 4:59 pm
My first thought was “poisson d’avril”, but I’m just not sure… :?:
Comment by witho — April 1, 2005 @ 5:13 pm
That has got to be a poisson d’Avril Petite! I don’t believe for one second YOU got caught. A demain( April 2nd).
Comment by cecile — April 1, 2005 @ 5:17 pm
poisson d’avril… i hope so. If that’s the case, she did it pretty well.
Comment by KitKat — April 1, 2005 @ 5:19 pm
I refuse to believe this is not a poisson d’avril. It is, isn’t it? Hmm?
Comment by céline — April 1, 2005 @ 5:20 pm
If all this is a joke, she is becoming more French than what I thought :cool:
Comment by KitKat — April 1, 2005 @ 5:24 pm
What a shame! I hope it’s not an April fool’s. I really enjoy your blog, I read it every morning with my coffee (at work!) Please send me your new address if you have to move.
Comment by Erin — April 1, 2005 @ 6:14 pm
KitKat – we have “April Fool” in England too! So it’s not necessarily a French thing to do. We don’t do anything with fish, though… :wink:
Comment by witho — April 1, 2005 @ 6:24 pm
[…] , she said. No ranting about how incompetent I think some people are, etc. The reason is this. Unlike Petit Anglaise, I don’t have to worry about my boss using my PC, h […]
Pingback by Widescreen Life in Pan and Scan » Blog Archive » This is Why I Don’t Blog About Work — April 1, 2005 @ 6:39 pm
[…] , she said. No ranting about how incompetent I think some people are, etc. The reason is this. Unlike Petit Anglaise, I don’t have to worry about my boss using my PC, h […]
Pingback by Widescreen Life in Pan and Scan » Blog Archive » This is Why I Don’t Blog About Work — April 1, 2005 @ 6:39 pm
I hope it all works well for you! Please send me the new URL if you decide to relocate:wink:
Comment by Kelly — April 1, 2005 @ 6:57 pm
hmmm. And you think your boss would be dumb enough not to find out the new URL (remember he would just have to google a mere “how to mumify a tadpole” or “petite porn” to hit the new site)?
By the way, since my friend Pierre happens to be a friend of your boss, I managed to get his email and told him that petiteanglaise.com was a very respectable and cute site, that everyone does personal things at work from time to time and that he should just mellow out.
Comment by shellorz — April 1, 2005 @ 7:06 pm
If it’s a poisson d’avril – looks like you caught lots of people, petite ! Nice job ;)
If not – please keep us posted !
Comment by Katia — April 1, 2005 @ 7:38 pm
This is a SICK april fool’s joke to play on us, Petite.
I don’t believe it for a second…
right?:shock:
Comment by Mathieu — April 1, 2005 @ 7:56 pm
on 1 hand, your boss is correct, u either don’t have enough to do, or u’re simply getting paid to perform your personal agenda, not the firm’s; on the other hand, curiousity killed the cat!! if able, i recommend u change jobs, your boss’s indisgression is probably only the tip of his iceberg.
bonne chance
Comment by sydney — April 1, 2005 @ 8:08 pm
Sydney – I am just like any secretary, sometimes busy, sometimes quieter, as I depend on other people for my workload…
Even if I do say so myself, I am a frighteningly efficient, overqualified (bilingual) secretary, which means I can ‘make time’ for the blog and still get my work done.
I don’t want a more challenging job right now – my priority is to be able to work 9-5 and spend plenty of quality time with my tadpole.
Comment by petite — April 1, 2005 @ 9:12 pm
:eek: :!: :sad: :cry: :mad: :evil: :twisted: :idea: :cool: :???: :wink: :grin: :mrgreen:
A story told with emoticons. This is my first post to the wonderful blog. I really have no connection to France accept perhaps a friend who lives in Malakoff and a little bit of a fetish for that wonderful city.
Even though your boss seems to have his knickers in a twist, I do hope all *is* well and that you *do* manage to get things done.
(I realize I’m posting a few days late. Sorry about that.)
Comment by typegirl — April 1, 2005 @ 11:24 pm
i remember once someone at work asking if i had a blog, it was terrifing because i wondered for a brief moment if i’d ever said anything untoward about my work, because in truth, no matter how much you like your job and how good you are at it you’re gonna have bad days. thankfully i hadn’t.
i’m with everyone else hoping it’s an april fool’s thing, but these days you just never know.
Comment by mainja — April 2, 2005 @ 5:02 am
I know where your coming from Petite, My last job, Network support, there are days when your working your arse of and the next day nothing is going on, just the maintenace which never took long. I had the same type of boss. The extra work could be setting up the company blog/website ?
I hope it turns out ok for you.
Comment by Andy — April 2, 2005 @ 1:24 pm
this is my worst nightmare and i have had to seriously question the motive for everything I write-i am so tempted by gosspi and bitching (not that you are) and for me it is a good excercise in only putting stuff out there that can hurt no other, I find this remarkabl;y difficult. ouch.
Comment by ruth — April 2, 2005 @ 6:47 pm
Heh, great one :)
Comment by garoo — April 3, 2005 @ 1:25 am
*looks at tags which show up in Bloglines*…
Good one!
Comment by highrise — April 3, 2005 @ 10:49 am
When offices first got networked the bosses worried about online porn and then *gasp* people doing online shopping. Now half the office population is blogging all day. You are not alone in this. Blogging is far more fun than most jobs so why not ? If you get fired you can always become a web designer. Or you could set one up for your boss and he would be hooked on WP and then he would get off your back. Keep up the Camembert. :)
Comment by Root — April 5, 2005 @ 1:19 pm