"Bad day at the office" warning....

briantrumpet

Just a heads-up warning, really:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/s ... r-job.html

"And last year David Rowat, a father-of-three who has cancer and was sacked by Argos after complaining about his job on Facebook. He was fired for gross misconduct after complaining about work on the social networking website after he arrived from a two-week holiday. Mr Rowat said that when he went back to work after the holiday "the deliveries hadn't been done and the place was a bit of a tip". He posted on his Facebook wall: "Had a great day back at work after my hols who am I kidding!!" This was followed by: "Back to the shambles that is work."

Some advice given to me by a lawyer friend was to imagine anything you write could be read back by a lawyer in a courtroom, and ask yourself, "how would it sound, in that context, in front of a jury?" I'm doubly aware of that with anything I write in electronic form - it's all too easy to think of it like a conversation down at the pub. But unlike pub conversations, the internet will store your utterances for posterity, and will probably be read by people you didn't intend to read what you've written. Be careful!

shouldbeinbed

Not the first, won't be the last and its like cycling up the side of an HGV in terms of knowing it could bite you hard and fast. Why would any employer happily be bad mouthed in public & not take issue with the person doing it?
On the face of it, sacked is harsh but what's in his contract & job spec? Is it a first 'offence'? How did he respond when challenged about it at work? Does he clearly identify himself /employer in his social media?

Also, what has cancer got to do with the story? Assumedly hus employers stood by him whilst he was treated & kept him in his job. Not saying he should grovel with gratitude by any means but I know how much time treatment can take & the pressure it puts on friends & colleagues to cover. Is being a cancer survivor a magic get out of stupid free card now? (I've had a scare myself, dad &other close family have died & son 7 has survived 'C', before ppl jump on my heartlessness) because if so, there's an awful lot of people out there who are suddenly bombproof.

campbellrae1

Yeah, one of the girls I used to work with got into deep doo-doo after bitching about a manager on facebook, he had done something wrong but in the end she got the trouble out of it. Seemed pretty harsh as they only found out because her profile wasn't set to be private, but it did make me think before slagging my bosses in public!

MattC59

I would have thought that if you're stupid enough to slag off your boss, or the company that you work for, on a web site which directly links you to your comments, with out using the privacy settings you're provided with, or whilst granting access to the people that you're slaging off, then you're an idiot.

If you're that stupid, then you're probably no great loss to the company.

cooldad

Silly bint at work spends half the day posting about how bored she is etc etc. Only a matter of time, like watching a car crash in slow motion.