Too sick to use her work computer — but spends rest of the day on Facebook
June 3, 2009 by Sam NarisiPosted in: Employee computer use, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views
If an employee went home sick and a manager found out she spent the rest of the day on Facebook, how would your company respond?
That’s the question a Swiss insurance company recently had to answer.
A woman working for Nationale Suisse went home early because of a migraine. She told her boss she needed to lie down in the dark, away from a computer screen.
That’s why the manager was surprised to see that she was editing her Facebook profile that afternoon. The woman was fired for lying about needing to get away from her computer.
Many managers would do the same thing. But the story isn’t quite that simple. First of all, the employee did admit to logging into Facebook after she went home — but she said she did so on her iPhone, which didn’t exacerbate her symptoms the way a computer screen would.
Also, she attests the company unfairly spied on her by checking on her profile while she was out. The company claims a co-worker stumbled across it and let the boss know.
Either way, the woman says she’s not suing to get her job back — in fact, she wouldn’t take the job back if it was offered to her. “My trust in this employer is gone,” she told the Swiss newspaper 20 Minuten.
Was the company fair when it fired her? Let us know your opinion in the comments section below.
View all the Latest StoriesTags: discipline, Facebook, firing, social networking
June 9th, 2009 at 12:35 pm
I would have to say they were wrong. Even though she “may” have lied about her reasons for going home, it is still her personal time and unless what she was doing infringed upon a company policy or defimation of the companies image, it doesn’t matter that she was on Facebook. Also, if being on Facebook was against the policy, what about the employee that “stumbled” across her being on there while on a work computer?
June 9th, 2009 at 2:13 pm
I agree, Aaron. I would also argue that the quality and accuracy of the edits she made on Facebook probably don’t require the same level of concentration she needs on her job. I suffer from migraines and could work on a laptop sporadically at home laying down, but you’re generally expected to be sitting up and alert when you’re at work . . . at least that’s true with the jobs I’ve had.
June 9th, 2009 at 3:22 pm
I think the “Boss” or “Other” staff member was just peeved that she went home and they didn’t. Could have been something ongoing though as well. Either way, I look at it as something a bit petty. More than likely what happened was the other employee had a, “I’ll show her” attitude and was camping out on Facebook themselves until she made a post. Kind of curious if they might have made a post first to draw her out.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:30 am
The employee was “off the clock” and not engaged in anything offensive or detrimental to the company. I’d be more concerned about having to pay an employee, who clearly had too much free time on their hands, to snoop on a co-worker. Obviously, they didn’t have to pick up a lot of slack from the employee’s absence.
June 10th, 2009 at 8:49 am
Where was the proof that SHE was the one on the computer and not someone else at her house? I would have had to fight this one.
June 11th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
I think the relevant information is the co-worker who was using Facebook while at work — if they fired the first employee, the second should have also been fired.