Worker Fired After Calling In Sick, Then Using Facebook At Home
from the lessons-learned dept
Usually when somebody gets fired for their use of a social-networking site, it's because they say something about their coworkers or boss online. But a worker in Switzerland got fired after merely logging on to Facebook at home. The rub, though: she'd called in sick with a migraine and told her boss she couldn't use a computer and needed to lie in a darkened room. The woman claims she was accessing the site while laying in her bed on her iPhone, and also claims the company's story that a coworker noticed her updates and told her supervisor isn't true. She instead is blaming "a fictitious Facebook persona" created by the company that she became friends with on the site, alleging that its only use was to spy on her. It sort of makes you wonder why she friended the company's account, but regardless, her treatment does seem a little harsh. There's no word if the company has fired other people for playing hooky, online or off, nor is there talk of the employee's previous record, but firing somebody based on their Facebook updates seems a bit over-the-top. Would they have reacted the same way if she'd updated from a doctor's office waiting room as opposed to her home?Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
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Filed Under: fired, social networking, workers
Companies: facebook
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Who says
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Re: Alternate title: Attention Whore Gets Just Deserts
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Re:
Anyway, why are they monitoring their facebook accounts at work?
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Re: Theory of Everything
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Sounds like the employee had a bad past and they were getting sick of her.
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Sweet....
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Re: Sweet....
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Wow
I think I've been out-conpiracy'd. I didn't really think that could happen.
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Re: Wow
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Re: Wow
I think I've been out-conpiracy'd. I didn't really think that could happen.
Not really, it could be a Facebook Group... the Lawyer-speak can throw you.
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Too bad
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Re: Too bad
Yea, ok skippy. Now you just jinxed yourself into being prone to having migraines for your remaining years.
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Re: Too bad
B, you obviously would not be a successful business owner. You don't even understand basic concepts involved with running a good business. Google will always get so much more from their employees than you ever will because they practically treat them like gods over there because no one other than the employees can make you successful.
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Re: Re: Too bad
People are all motivated from very different things. Do you have the real facts to support this? If you spend $X on the Google Programs does it really get you Y back in productivity?
It is the business owner, supervisor, etc.'s job to figure out what motivates each employee and tailor their environment for it within reason.
Freedom
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Re: Too bad
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Re: Too bad
*People who say "Too Bad" are simply urban legends...too lazy to get informed or have any kind relevant opinion!!!!
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Re: Too bad
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Facebook
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Re: Facebook
And using anything online for minutes while sick is a big difference between using it for hours...We are all technologically perverse...many people would Tweet, Google, FB, And check emails while under kidney transplantation if possible...*sigh*
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That said, this woman sounds fishy.
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I'd avoid mentioning this in your next interview :)
Freedom
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Desert, from the American Heritage dictionary:
1. Something that is deserved or merited, especially a punishment. Often used in the plural: They got their just deserts when the scheme was finally uncovered.
2. The state or fact of deserving reward or punishment.
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n.
A barren or desolate area, especially:
A dry, often sandy region of little rainfall, extreme temperatures, and sparse vegetation.
A region of permanent cold that is largely or entirely devoid of life.
An apparently lifeless area of water.
An empty or forsaken place; a wasteland: a cultural desert.
Archaic A wild, uncultivated, and uninhabited region.
adj.
Of, relating to, characteristic of, or inhabiting a desert: desert fauna.
Barren and uninhabited; desolate: a desert island.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin dēsertum, from neuter past participle of dēserere, to desert; see desert3.]
de·sert 2 (dĭ-zûrt')
n.
Something that is deserved or merited, especially a punishment. Often used in the plural: They got their just deserts when the scheme was finally uncovered.
The state or fact of deserving reward or punishment.
[Middle English, from Old French deserte, from feminine past participle of deservir, to deserve; see deserve.]
Word History: When Shakespeare says in Sonnet 72, "Unless you would devise some virtuous lie,/To do more for me than mine own desert," he is using the word desert in the sense of "worthiness; deserving," a word perhaps most familiar to us in the plural, meaning "something that is deserved," as in the phrase just deserts. This word goes back to the Latin word dēservīre, "to devote oneself to the service of," which in Vulgar Latin came to mean "to merit by service." Dēservīre is made up of dē-, meaning "thoroughly," and servīre, "to serve." Knowing this, we can distinguish this desert from desert, "a wasteland," and desert, "to abandon," both of which go back to Latin dēserere, "to forsake, leave uninhabited," which is made up of dē-, expressing the notion of undoing, and the verb serere, "to link together." We can also distinguish all three deserts from dessert, "a sweet course at the end of a meal," which is from the French word desservir, "to clear the table." Desservir is made up of des-, expressing the notion of reversal, and servir (from Latin servīre), "to serve," hence, "to unserve" or "to clear the table."
de·sert 3 (dĭ-zûrt')
v. de·sert·ed, de·sert·ing, de·serts
v. tr.
To leave empty or alone; abandon.
To withdraw from, especially in spite of a responsibility or duty; forsake: deserted her friend in a time of need.
To abandon (a military post, for example) in violation of orders or an oath.
v. intr.
To forsake one's duty or post, especially to be absent without leave from the armed forces with no intention of returning.
[French déserter, from Late Latin dēsertāre, frequentative of Latin dēserere, to abandon : dē-, de- + serere, to join; see ser-2 in Indo-European roots.]
de·sert'er n.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
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So any idiots claiming that migraines don't exist, well go to hell.
Shouldn't this company be firing itself for looking at Facebook?
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Re:
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Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin dēsertum, from neuter past participle of dēserere, to desert; see desert3.]
de·sert 2 (dĭ-zûrt')
n.
Something that is deserved or merited, especially a punishment. Often used in the plural: They got their just deserts when the scheme was finally uncovered.
The state or fact of deserving reward or punishment.
You just repeated what The Mad Patent Prosecutor said on - Apr 29th, 2009 @ 8:34am! HE WAS CORRECT. Now STFU.
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Amazing!
One great reason to have your own online business! :-) No Boss!
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"A migraine is usually an intense pounding headache with nausea that occurs from time to time. The pounding or pulsing pain usually begins in the forehead, the side of the head or around the eyes. The headache gradually gets worse. Just about any movement or activity seems to make it hurt more. Nausea and vomiting are common. Bright lights or loud noises make the headache worse. The headache can last for two hours or even up to two or three days"....and that's just the least of it...moron!!!
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