David Farrar reports (from an SST article) that a former Canterbury English lecturer, now employed at Syracuse University, missed out on a job at another university in the US because of a letter she wrote to the NZ Listener magazine disparaging the Kiwi habit of wandering about barefoot.
When Sue and I arrived here, we joked about setting up a fake charity, "Shoes for Kiwis", that would feature lots of barefoot kiwi kids and would promise that all funds raised would go towards buying shoes for folks here. That most of the shoes would be worn by Sue wouldn't go against the letter of the charity's incorporation documents. We of course never went through with it, but it was fun to think about.
Blogging and letter writing can be dangerous...there are lots and lots of veto players in hiring processes.
But a veto helped get you your job!!
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