Said It Here

Can I get fired if my employer finds out about my writing hobby?

Using a pen name does not guarantee total protection, as dedicated coworkers or administrators can still trace self-published works back to you. Being identified can lead to severe professional consequences, including job termination and the loss of your teaching license.

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

  1. 1
    Using a pen name
  2. 2
    Deleting post history
  3. 3
    Not telling colleagues or people at school
  4. 4
    Avoiding writing characters based on real colleagues
  5. 5
    Refraining from using school Wi-Fi to access or read the content

In their words

Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.

“Had an English colleague that used a pen name and while it took years her self published works were still found and tied back to her. Lost her job, her license, and our librarian sued her”source ↗

Petty-Penelope · r/Teachers · 2 upvotes

“So my question is, if SOMEHOW, it got out that I do this, can a school fire me?”source ↗

sarcastik_teecher · r/Teachers

Where this came up

r/Teachersemploymentprivacy

People with this problem also raised