In this Era of the Overshare, it’s easy to forget that the internet is not actually a secret clubhouse that your boss can’t find. That is, until you get fired for talking shit about your job on the internet.
When the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) announced in September that it was cutting thousands of jobs, bank employee Kate Furlong updated her Facebook status thusly,
”I speak for myself when I say WoOOOOooooOooooHOoooOooOoo’ it was pretty damn obvious something like this was coming. I’m neither stupid nor naive … and quite honestly it is the best news ever as far as I am concerned!”
‘It was not unexpected. I’ve just hung on by my fingertips to stick around long enough for a nice payout when they could’ve had me out long ago without a penny! More fool them! Haha! Xx.”
Don’t Do What Donna Don’t Does, people.
A vigilant coworker of Ms. Furlong informed a work superior of her internet shenanigans and she was subjected to a disciplinary hearing, and when all was said and done, Kate was let go sans severance package. Ouch.
There are lessons to be learned from this. First of all, don’t air your shit on Facebook. Second, block your coworkers from seeing your status updates if you hate your job. And third, don’t alternately capitalize letters in typed celebratory exclamations; communicating like a 12 year old on MySpace in 2002 doesn’t bolster your case for being adult-level literate.
Finally, I’d just like to take this opportunity to say to my boss, if he’s reading this: I love working at my giant banky company. Please do not fire me.
“Banker Gets Fired After She Celebrates Getting Laid Off From RBS On Facebook” [Business Insider]
Image via Shutterstock
