Hey, HR, You’d Better Hear This
Posted on Monday, May 7, 2007 by Frank RocheI can hear you. Got gossip? Sit next to me.
I just saw this reference to overhear.us on TechCrunch and had to go check it out. And if you’re running HR or IT policy, you might want to check it out, too. Here’s how overhear.us describes itself:
Some things you need to say at work are hard to say at work. So every organization has a “grapevine” for information that’s too sensitive for company email. The problem with the grapevine is that it’s inefficient. Word spreads from person to person via phone calls and conversations in hallways. By the time a story gets to you, who knows how much it’s changed?
Overhear.us is your new web grapevine. It lets information spread instantly between coworkers. It’s more private than a public forum because you need an email address within your organization to participate. But it’s safer than using internal email, because it’s hosted at our site.
This isn’t just a site for people to complain about the organizations they work for. We think grapevines are a good thing. Most organizations would be worse off without them.
Information is going to spread between coworkers. Overhear.us ensures that it at least spreads quickly and accurately.
Forewarned is forearmed. Rumors are one thing, but having those rumors documented on a website using a company e-mail address? Hmmm.
Scott McArthur
May 8th, 2007
…and its friend at http://www.fuckedcompany.com
Frank Roche
May 9th, 2007
Scott, that’s a great reference. Right on.
paul overheard
May 10th, 2007
thanks for the review. we are using overhear.us a lot internal to YC.
we are aware of the corporate email thing. so we are working a ways to keep your email separate from things you post.
feel free to email me if you have any questions.
Frank Roche
May 10th, 2007
Hi Paul, I will take you up on a few questions and send them your way. It’s a VERY interesting product you’ve developed…i just wonder about the IT shutdown possibility.
I’ll send you a few questions. Thanks much for stopping by!