Facebook entry gets office worker fired
Kimberley Swann thought her job was boring. So she said so on her Facebook page.
Her employer, Ivell Marketing and Logistics of Clacton, U.K., gave her this update: "Following your comments made on Facebook about your job and the company we feel it is better that, as you are not happy and do not enjoy your work we end your employment with Ivell Marketing & Logistics with immediate effect."
Miss Swann, 16, was stunned. She told the Daily Telegraph: "I did not even put the company's name, I just put that my job was boring. They were just being nosy, going through everything. I think it is really sad, it makes them look stupid that they are going to be so petty."
Ivell's home page is a little on the dull side. But I did find a lively sentence at the very end of its home page spiel, almost every sentence of which begins with "We."
This work of art is entitled "Bored at Work". It in no way represents the exciting opportunities at Ivell Marketing and Logistics.
(Credit: CC Schlusselbein2007)"We follow a zero tolerance social accountability standard," says the last sentence. Perhaps firing Ms. Swann is an example of Ivell's zero tolerance social accountability.
So I went to a very sober Web site to discover the definition of this Social Accountability Standard, which seems to be referred to as SA8000. Here it is: "(The standard) measures the performance of companies in eight key areas: child labor, forced labor, health and safety, free association and collective bargaining, discrimination, disciplinary practices, working hours and compensation."
Here is today's philosophical question: is your personal Facebook page an example of "free association"? Stephen Ivell, the owner, thinks the company acted properly. He told the Telegraph: "It is just a shame that it did not work out because she is a lovely girl. For a small company, when a decision is made, one thinks long and hard about it."
I was just wondering, but, well, how long and hard did the company think about snooping into its employee's personal Facebook pages? I only ask because I know there are some people who have zero tolerance for this kind of corporate behavior.
Chris Matyszczyk is an award-winning creative director who advises major corporations on content creation and marketing. He brings an irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic voice to the tech world. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. 
Sadly in the facebook and google world view, they are only relegated to being " irreverent, sarcastic, and sometimes ironic " in the ever expanding machine media world.:)
good be be "governed" by the likes of the Facebook and Google zealots. -) Shes 16, maybe she learned the emporers not only naked, but a real bastard too.:)
This is sheer discrimination and I'd like to place the employer contact information on Facebook. Let's see how they fair with a 175 million of the world's current and future employees.
Telephone:(01255) 687500Fax:(01255) 687501
"Miss Swann, 16, was stunned."
Were you thinking of the Pirates of the Caribbean when you wrote that, Chris?
Karma's a *****!
It's not the employers fault this girl is an idiot who can't think ahead. They did her a favor and she's trashing them for it!
Two sides to every coin and remember she volunteered to put this stuff in public by posting it on Facebook. They didn't invade her privacy in any way, she did it to herself.
Address:Unit 11c Stephenson Road, Clacton-on-Sea, Essex, CO15 4NS, United Kingdom
Telephone:(01255) 687500 Fax:(01255) 687501
Think for a moment (I know it's hard today, but really try). An employee just took out an article in the local newspaper claiming they hated their stupid boring job (local paper, Myspace, Facebook - all the same in this case, it's a public forum). As their employer, you have a choice. You can either keep this person around, try to work with them and hope it doesn't all go bad within the year or you can let them go and find a position that will make them happy. You decide to do what's best for both and let them go now, possibly even offering to help them find a new job that they will be happy with - but they just take out another ad trashing you for firing them for no reason!
Being a 16 year old idiot doesn't make you right.
A better analogy is that the "paper" is 300 pages and her comment is two lines buried in the middle of it. Also with no mention of the company, there's no chance it's going to turn up on a search. Only those people looking for her will find it. Creepy.
Finish school, then return to the adult table for conversation. Until then you're just embarrassing yourself.
And to those who say that freedom of speech is dead, your an idiot. The freedom of speech was NEVER ment to allow you to say whatever you want whenever you want, its to protect your right to speak your opinion about the government. If you however use this right to insult someone or some company, be prepared to accept the consequences of your words. Its not freedom without retribution, its just the freedom of speech without imprisonment by the government unless you express intent to harm. Learn what your rights are before you say those rights are dead.
- by mmantia March 5, 2009 7:25 PM PST
- I find this quite ridiculous. The girl only 16 and says she finds work boring! Nothing new.
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- by GoogolyGoo March 12, 2009 3:33 AM PDT
- I highly doubt that, mmantia.
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(30 Comments)Facebook "stalking" by employers and schools has become a horrible invasion of privacy. I myself know a 15 year old who was expelled from her high school because she made a group titled, "My school gives too much HW". How petty is that!?
Lucky this girl learned her lesson at an early age.
She should have set her page to Friends Only and kept her bosses off her Friend list.
Facebook is a PUBLIC forum, and it takes a single click to go from her Wall to Info, where she-- by her own choice-- included her Employer.
Chances are she sucked at her job and that was their out.