My mom always used to caution me to never put in writing something I didn't want the world to see. That was back when an electric typewriter seemed high-tech. Now in the age of Facebook and Twitter when our every thought, no matter how banal, can be shot across the world in a matter of seconds, nothing could hold more true than that old adage from mom especially when it comes to the workplace.

　　We all know that just about anything we post online is fair game for employers to check out, as we've posted about before. These days our every keystroke from instant messages to emails can be monitored by our employers who issue us computers and phones. But a new case, as I write about in today's paper, takes things a step further: Two restaurant workers were fired after they created an invite-only MySpace forum to dish about their workplace and their bosses, on their personal computers. Users could log in only with their own email addresses and passwords. They were busted when a supervisor talked a worker into giving him her password and perused the site.

　　Monitoring our comments behind the wall of an invite-only, password-protected site might seem like a bit of a reach. After all, should we be expected to hand over to our manager the passwords to our personal email accounts where we gripe to our friends about work? Or maybe we should know better. Some lawyers I spoke with said Internet users should be savvy enough to know that passwords don't always provide the security we expect and some company policies hold workers to high standards when it comes to shoptalk.

　　As we often discuss, a big part of the juggle is finding the balance between our work and our private lives, but the dividing line can be hazy sometimes. What's more, we all feel the need sometimes to vent about our workplaces, but it's tough to know in this day and age what is acceptable banter and what isn't. Readers, do you think employees should be held accountable for online leaks of their private discussions about work? Do you think employers are overstepping their bounds?

　　我母亲过去常常提醒我，永远不要把自己不想让别人看到的东西写下来。在那个年代，电传打字机看起来就已经很高科技了。如今在这个Facebook和Twitter的时代，人们的每一个想法──无论多么平淡无奇──都能在瞬间传到世界各个角落，我母亲的忠告真是再正确不过了，特别是对有关工作的讨论。

　　我们都知道，我们在网上发的任何东西都有可能被老板看到，这一点我们以前曾经讨论过。现在，我们在即时信息或电子邮件中敲出的每个字都可能受到老板的监视，正是他们给我们发了电脑和电话。不过正如我最近写的一个新例子，事情还不止这样：两名餐馆工人用自己的个人电脑在MySpace上创建了一个受邀才能加入的论坛，发泄对工作和老板们的不满，他们因为这事被开除了。加入他们论坛的人必须用自己的电子邮件地址和密码才能登录。一名工头说服一个工人把自己的密码给了他，之后工头浏览了论坛，那两名工人就倒了霉。

　　监视我们在受邀才能加入、有密码保护的网站上发表的评论看似有点过分。毕竟，我们应该把个人电子邮件帐户的密码交给经理吗？我们可是在上面向朋友大吐工作上的苦水。或许我们有更多的了解。和我聊过的一些律师说，互联网用户应该有足够精明，明白密码并不总能提供我们想要的安全保障，一些公司的制度还对员工在工作相关讨论上提出了很高的标准。

　　正如我们常常讨论的一样，这个专栏很大程度上是要找到工作和生活之间的平衡，不过这条分界线有时可能很模糊。此外，我们都觉得有时需要发泄工作中的不满，不过现如今很难说哪些玩笑是可以接受的，哪些是无法接受的。读者朋友们，你认为员工应该为有关工作的私人聊天遭泄露负责吗？你认为老板是否越界了？

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