We have a story today about an agent who was sacked from her job at a Tui call centre for writing about her colleague on her Facebook page.
She wrote that she had "never been so angry" and wanted to "smack the brown nosing cow in the face".
Surely people must write about their workmates all the time on Facebook; sounds like it was bit of bad luck that she was caught out.
Do you think she deserved to lose her job?
In that case Chloe, I dread to think what you write about me...
This is one of those situations when we need to know both sides of the story to make a decision and perhaps a warning would have been better. How many times have you heard someone say "I could kill him/her?" Many times know doubt. Does this mean they will actually do it? No!
However it does depend on how she posted. If she was mentioning the company then it would not be right; if it was just about a colleague and to a third person then perhaps it is Big Brother going too far?
It would be interesting to know how the company heard about it though. Were they monitoring their staff or was it that the aggrieved person saw it and complained?
Lets’ assume I wrote a diary and every time someone had angered me I wrote it in my diary. Let’s say I had written it for years and years and yet never once been involved in any physical argument with the people I have written about. One day my boss finds my diary and sacks me because of what I have written. Is that correct, especially if the diary was not actually at work?
Another thing, would TUI sack a manager or other member of staff if that person called someone else an idiot after they made a mistake? Are they professionally trained enough to know if someone was an idiot? In the early 20th century the term idiot was still used as the medical term for someone with severe mental retardation. So calling someone an idiot is a real insult. How many TUI staff members have been abused with terms like idiot or stupid even in jest? What would TUI do if every member of staff who had been called anything decided to take action? Calling someone an idiot is abuse, the same as bullying; this woman was sacked for bullying. (I am not saying anyone has been called an idiot, this is just an example).
Sometimes in life it is better to clear things like this up internally; get to the bottom of it. After all for the woman to be so angry the other member of staff might well have been at fault somewhere. I think by doing what they have done could open up all cans of worms. If a warning had been given followed up by a company wide notification of what would happen in the future then it would stop people from posting about things like this straight away.
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