Bleacher Report Killed My Career

As I came across Adam Amick’s article, "How Bleacher Report Helped Lead to my SportsCenter Moment," I resolved to go ahead and let it be known through this article that Bleacher Report has resulted in the exact opposite for me.

Yep, that’s right.

Bleacher Report, unknown to virtually everyone before, has now been deemed the “career killer” at my former place of employment.

This all came about some three weeks ago.

I was sitting at my desk “working” when an employee walked in to inquire of my assistance with a job. Being the nice guy I usually am, I immediately left my office to help.

But my boss was seeking my assistance at the same time.

Upon entering my office, she noticed BR on my computer screen. Then she started browsing the pages of BR, at which time she came across my profile.

Obviously she was not very happy that I was spending company time looking through “sports stuff” on the Internet.

Everything blew over after a day or so. But then a fellow employee (we’ll call him Ralph for the sake of this article) heard of the incident.

Ralph, one of the company’s maintenance personnel, had not always seen eye-to-eye with me. In fact, more times than not Ralph and I were at odds not only about company-related issues but “off-the-clock” matters as well.

This gave Ralph the liberty to feel as if he could invade my privacy and “investigate” the matter.

Several times throughout the following days I would find Ralph in my office “fixing” things.

Whenever I would find him in my office uninvited, he would make up excuses. He said, “The lights need to be replaced with newer, more eco-friendly bulbs,” or, “The wiring has gone bad on some of the outlets, so I just need to check yours.”

I didn’t think much of it. I just tolerated it.

Again, all was well, until he found an article for the Web site that I was working on two weeks ago while I was out of the office. (I know leaving it up was a bonehead move on my part.)

Needless to say, his findings did not go over well with the boss. In fact, she was enraged.

I tried to apologize and plead for my job. But this was the second time in a little over a week that I was caught red-handed.

Moreover, my boss was, well, let’s just say she was in the middle of some business crisis, and consequently anything deemed unacceptable could not be tolerated by her at that time.

I will be the first to admit I was at fault. I had been warned.

My wife is livid. My family, unaware of the true events, has been left puzzled.

Even my dog now wonders why I'm staying home so much during the day that her eating schedule is all screwed-up!!

I guess that's what happens when you spend your workday with BR instead of what you're getting paid to do.

Maybe this is a sign though. Maybe this incident is pointing me toward bigger and better things.

Maybe this is the point where I propel myself to find that sports job I’ve always wanted.

I’ve just got to stay positive.

So, if anyone out there has any leads please help a friend!