Woman fired for e-mails in all caps
Being an accountant is hard.
You have to deal, in general, with people who can't count, can't save receipts, and then expect you to bail them out from all their troubles.
So please consider the plight of Vicki Walker, an accountant with ProCare Health in Auckland, New Zealand.
According to the trusty New Zealand Herald, ProCare, in dismissing Walker, told her that her e-mail style had caused ripples of disturbance in the serene landscape of her fellow workers' minds.
Her sins, for there were reportedly several, were that she used capital letters, bold typefaces and, perish the mere concept, red text in her e-mails.
Walker reacted to this dismissal with an exclamation point and some question marks. She took ProCare Health to an employment tribunal, where she was awarded 17,000 NZ dollars ($11,447) in compensation.
She told the Herald that she found it curious that ProCare Health only produced one e-mail in evidence during the proceedings.
This was not an e-mail for those of a tender disposition. It was intended to advise staff on how to fill out claim forms.
The time and date were in deep red. And one sentence was rather boldly highlighted in blue. It read: "To ensure your staff claim is processed and paid, please do follow the below checklist."
Goodness, that does seems terribly abrasive, doesn't it?
Walker had to fight hard in order to see her claim succeed. She told the Herald: "I am a single woman with a mortgage, and I had to re-mortgage my home and borrow money from my sister to make it through. They nearly ruined my life."
Perhaps it isn't all that surprising, then, that having won her case for unfair dismissal, she now reportedly intends to pursue ProCare for further compensation.
I wonder whether she'll be outlining her claims in an e-mail. Perhaps she might use bold green type.
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. 
If I want to use special formatting in my emails to make sure people 'get it,' I will, and if you like your emails to read like a .txt file in notepad, then that's too bad.
Secondly, some people INSIST on getting e-mails in all capitals, because they have ****-poor eyesight.
THe only people who would AUTOMATICALLY assume that it has to be something like that...... are the TRUE people who are 'bad co-workers' in most cases because they automatically think of their OWN behavior at work.
I bet this was just their excuse to get rid of her. Would you want to work with someone so condescending that they feel they need to send out an email like that to people? I have a coworker like that and I've told management that I will never work on a project with her again. The funny thing is that everyone on a project with her has told management the same thing. Basically, that puts them in a position to decide whether they would rather keep three productive employee or one semi-productive employee.
Unless, of course, she used blinking text in all caps... then she totally deserved it ;)
By her reaction to her firing--quick litigation, melodramatic response, bad financial situation--point to all signs of her not being a good employee.
How you type is indicative to what kind of person you are.
This woman is NOT the one in the wrong here, it is her EMPLOYER who is in the wrong, and they rightly got ************ for it.
On the contrary. The employer probably sat down and figured it as follows:
Manager 1 "This employee is a nightmare. We need to fire her."
Manager 2 "If we do, she'll sue and we'll have to pay some sort of fine."
Manager 1 "How much would it be?"
Manager 2 "Probably no more than $15,000"
Manager 1 "If it gets rid of her for good, it's worth it. Find some reason to can her."
Emails of this type can be pretty obnoxious and counter productive. Makes we wonder about her face to face interactions with her co-workers.
Please remind me not to hire you.
Thanks!
Those in management should always run by those rules. Especially if it's something as small as that.
Employers in NZ have no spine and resort to bullying and scare tactics rather than deal with an issue in a civilized way - or make the issue bigger than it actually is - then fire the person - Then end up in court having to pay out compensation!
I actually use a very dark blue on white instead. It's actually a little easier on the eyes when reading it, but I agree with using black on white in principal.
I hate the floral background stationary emails.
- by Netteligent September 2, 2009 2:23 AM PDT
- She must done something to offend her incompetent managerat ProCare Health in Auckland, New Zealand. They just wait for a little chance to get rid of her. Human Resource is always taking side with managers and protect company.
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- by Lerianis3 September 2, 2009 2:30 AM PDT
- That is the reason why we need STRONG worker protection laws that do not allow someone to be fired unless there is a big justification for doing so. I also find it odd that they only exposed ONE e-mail.... that probably lost them their damned case in itself. ProCare Health.should have KNOWN that one e-mail would not be enough.
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- by b_baggins September 2, 2009 7:47 AM PDT
- I find it interesting that the worker is always assumed to be the innocent aggrieved party. It's not surprising though; it's just yet another expression of the envy that oozes from most people.
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- by gggg sssss September 2, 2009 5:19 PM PDT
- Because HR is PAID by management. What part oif that is HARD TO UNDERSTAND?
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