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Facebook sacking highlights hidden dangers
The perils of mixing business and pleasure on social networking sites was highlighted again this week after a woman was apparently sacked because of comments she made about her job on Facebook.
Details of the work-related rant from an office worker known as Lindsay flew around the internet this week, and were even posted on social bookmarking site Digg, although it remains to be seen if the post is genuine or a hoax.
In a status update, Lindsay wrote: "OMG I HATE MY JOB. My boss is a total pervy wanker always making me do shit stuff just to piss me off!!"
However, the woman crucially forgot that she had added her boss as a friend on the site, and when he logged on and saw the four letter tirade, he took decisive action.
"Hi Lindsay, I guess you forgot about adding me on here?" he commented on her profile page. "You also seem to have forgotten that you have 2 weeks left on your 6 month trial period. Don't bother coming in tomorrow. I'll pop your P45 in the post, and you can come in whenever you like to pick up any stuff you've left here."
The incident is one of a growing number of examples of staff failing to understand the potential dangers of social networking sites. In an almost identical incident in February, a 16 year old office worker was sacked after her boss spotted comments she'd made on Facebook criticising her job.
It's widely known that HR teams vet candidates for new roles by surfing the internet for details on them. The message is clear for employees: if you're dissatisfied at work, don't broadcast it to the world via your social network. And if the urge is impossible to resist, revisit your privacy settings and double check who your friends are.
Employers are gradually thawing to the idea of their staff using social networking sites at work, there are even potential productivity gains for some in doing so, depending on the industry they work in. But what these cases show is that employers themselves should perhaps spend a little more time online seeing what their staff are getting up to.
regardless, what the boss did is highly illegal and she is well within her right to sue for unfair dismissal.
Posted by Paul | August 16, 2009 5:30 PM
well why should emplyers have the right to go through the net looking for what there staff are doing are you like agreeing with this big brother society. employers have no right to check social networking sites, i dont use face book and rarely use msn so whats going on. I think people arent getting privacy and respect. shall we say this person was doing really well but didnt like what they were doing then decided to explain that there job is rubbish but showed that how good they were at it. wouldnt that be unfair she or he is obviously the right person for the job. This is again probably people trying to excuse management when they let personel opinion creep into the work place. the person fired kept her personel opinon to herself and did her job. The manager saw something outside of work and let personel opinion come into work. there is a word for this harasment if you found someone attractive and then persued it at work wouldnt the end be of the same moral standing? basically you let a personel opinion effect your job
Posted by steve | August 17, 2009 6:49 AM
The "danger" in this case wasn't posting on Facebook, but rather the stupidity of the woman involved.
Posted by John S | August 17, 2009 9:21 AM
Use the groups feature on facebook... it's what its there for. Put everyone such as your boss, and people you dont want to know the in's and out's of your life on limited profile.
Posted by Mike S | August 17, 2009 4:39 PM
Sorry - no sympathy here. The boss did not "go through the net through the net looking to see what his staff were up to" - the silly moo included her boss on her facebook group.
Forget about innapropriate personal comments etc. She has probably shown herself unsuitable for her position through sheer stupidity.
It's not the first time this has happened and it will not be the last.
Posted by Al | August 18, 2009 1:23 PM
The boss was well within his rights to remove her from her position.
She was not forced to add him as a friend on facebook, nor did she have to leave him in on a privacy setting that allowed him to see all her posts.
More than likely she signed an at-will employment contract which means the employee or the employer can terminate the job at any time. Further, during her training period there is grounds for dismissal based on poor attitude and/or performance - something her post clearly reflects.
If she mailed a written article to the local newspaper filled with libel like this wall-post, and that article was delivered to her boss's desk, we wouldn't be having this discussion. It's the same premise, only through a less tangible medium.
The argument could be made, because her post can be considered defamation of character, that in this case he would actually have a better case against her than vice-versa when it comes to the knee-jerk "Just sue it" attitude.
The bottom line - don't post things online you don't want other people to see. If you choose to disregard common sense and do so anyway, be prepared for the consequences.
- Will D. White
- @Will_Powered
- Friends with My Boss on Facebook and Twitter.
Posted by Will D. White | August 20, 2009 5:49 PM
Paul, usually during a trial employment period, employers do not need a reason to fire you. After the trial period has completed and you are no longer a "temporary employee" then something like this MIGHT be illegal, however, posting it in a place where her supervisor could read it, is outright insubordination and is generally grounds for dismissal.
Posted by Heidi | August 20, 2009 11:17 PM
What the boss is overlooking is that this very ability to bitch about our jobs in a quasi-public, yet officially private way actually benefits him. It's a completely ineffective outlet for worker dissatisfaction, which, of course, is rampant, because we're all being exploited by the Capitalist system.
Posted by . | October 20, 2009 11:18 PM
Paul - slight 'issue' with your statement. The 6 month probation is part of UK employment law. It allows employers to remove staff who are not suitable or capable for the job for any reason. Her boss was well within his rights to sack her for any reason!
Posted by Calum | November 5, 2009 10:38 PM
a friend on my list printed off somthing i said about my company on facebook and gave it to my boss now it looks like im going to get the sack, can they do that??
Posted by simon | November 14, 2009 7:00 PM
@Simon...
If one of your 'friends' gave something damaging to your boss, I think that a review of your 'friends' is in order.... But you'll have plenty of time to do that while looking up 'unfair dismissal' in the Citizens Advice Bureau.
Posted by . | November 16, 2009 12:38 PM
I'm in a similar situation Calum in that i have recently been sacked for comments made on a friends page regarding my boss. My own page is private, as is my friends and thus not freely available on the internet but unfortunately a mutual 'friend' of ours decided to print off and show these comments to our boss in a brown-nosing attempt. I'm just wondering whether they can terminate our contracts given that the pages were not technically 'public domain' as stated in our contract of employment but rather a closed forum to which we can accept friends to view. Difficult one. Going to speak to CAB about it i reckon,there doesn't seem to be any cases regarding this that have been taken seriously in the UK, unlike in Australia with the case of the FB Six..
Posted by Claire | November 25, 2009 3:23 PM