The tool that makes it possible to get your work done may also be the thing that gets you axed as an employee. These days, a computer is critical for most jobs, but you better be careful what you post!

Ellen Simonetti started a blog a couple years ago as a way to find peace with personal issues.

"I had just lost my mother to cancer and that just hit me really hard and that was a way for me to express myself and express my feelings," Ellen explains.

She had no idea that blog would ultimately end the career she loved. She says the trouble started after she posted pictures of herself in uniform in between shifts as a flight attendant.

"I was just completely, just shocked," Ellen says.

Nancy Flynn's not surprised. She's the founder of the Epolicy Institute, which offers advice to employers to help limit what she calls 'e-risks'…both on and off the job! She says it's a common problem.

"In 2007 we had 28 percent of employers who terminated employees for inappropriate email use. In addition to that we had an additional 30 percent of bosses who terminated employees for Internet violations," Flynn says.

Many employees say they know not to send private emails from work, or shop or surf inappropriate Internet sites while on the job, but did you realize company policy may limit what you can do online after hours?

"They violated a policy, any policy, not necessarily an email policy, might have been code of conduct, could have been ethics," Flynn explains.

Something else to keep in mind: You should expect to be monitored, even if you're using personal accounts at work. Even a private blog, written from home, may be a violation, and enough to end your employment.

"When employees are fired for blogging on their own personal accounts, it typically is because the content in some way violates some company policy," Flynn says.

Ellen says she still isn't aware of any rules prohibiting what she did or clauses she might have violated, but she does have advice for others. "If you plan to start a blog, find out if your company has a blogging policy."

That's the same advice Nancy Flynn offers. Check your company's policy and ask how you're being monitored. She says there's a reason more companies are taking this tough approach. If a company is sued, every bit of e-mail and Internet history becomes part of the court case and can be potentially embarrassing or even illegal.