Josh S. on drugs and permanence of the web

Today’s interview is with Josh S., proprietor of Endquote.

Q: You wrote a response to the Letterman on Acid story on {fray} in which you admit to using illegal drugs. Are you concerned that your employer (or possible future employer) will find this post via a Web search at some point in the future and fire you (or, in the case of future employers, not hire you at all)?

A: I’m not terribly concerned about it - though I might not have made the post if I’d thought of that question beforehand, just to avoid the potential hassle. I think many of the people I work with already think I’m a rave-all-night-and-eat-tons-of-drugs sort of person when I’m not at work. They know I’m a fairly visible member of the northwest rave scene due to my involvement in DanceSafe (dancesafe.org) and NWTekno (nwtekno.org). I’m the second-youngest employee out of 200ish, and walk around in phat pants all the time. Drug use is probably almost expected of me.

In reality though, it’s a very occasional thing, and it’s always been less intense than the time described on the Fray. There’s a “substance abuse” section in the employee handbook. The way I read it, I think I’m okay until my use of substances affects my performance at work, and I’m pretty far from that.

As far as future employers go, I’d hope they wouldn’t try and dig that deeply into my personal background, and I’m not sure I’d want to work for them if they did. If they’re that interested, there’s more than enough personal information disclosed in the three years of journal entries on my website, and I’m sure they could find things there that they’d have bigger issues with than a short comment posted to the end of a Fray story. :: end

Thanks, Josh. So, what about the rest of you? Do you worry about the things you write on the Web coming back to bite you in the ass? If so, do you censor yourself? Do you publish under a pseudonym? Post your thoughts here.