16 Year-Old Girl Fired On Facebook For Cookie-Errand Error
By Ben ReiningaMarch 24th, 2010, 11:15 amComments (15)I guess it was inevitable. People have lost jobs because of Facebook, or not gotten jobs in the first place; it was only a matter of time before we got wind of someone being literally fired on Facebook. Still, this sucks:
A sixteen-year-old British girl named Chelsea lost ten pounds on an errand to buy cookies for her after school job. She offered to pay the money back, but was fired anyway. Or, more accurately, she offered to pay the money back and then her boss asked a semi-literate underling to post a termination notice on her Facebook wall.
At first, you'll agree that this is totally inappropriate. I mean, getting fired is already terrible? But getting fired on your Facebook wall, in a message that starts with "Hiya" and ends with "xx?" That's just salt in the wound, no? If you're going to fire someone, at lease have the balls to do it face-to-face. Think how much lamer Up in the Air would have been if George Clooney had just sat behind a desk firing people via electronic communication? He wouldn't never have had to go through a single security check-point. No airport bars. No Vera Farmiga, for Chrissakes.
But maybe we're just being reactionary here, Luddites, technology naysayers. Perhaps replacing interactions that are so pivotal we typically reserve them for face-to-face meetings is the way of the future: Image, the termination text-message:
- "Mgnmnt regrets to inform u ur no longer a good fit :( :( :("
The termination Tweet:
- @BobSmith plz let me know if you have any questions about yr severance #yourfired
Hell, why even tell anyone anything? Lets just add Facebook functions:
- Joe Johnson has requested your Hand in Marriage
- ACCEPT REJECT
Think how...great....it would be.
Comments ( 15 )
Brits haven't been able to speak proper engrish for decades. For all we know, that post may be an actual raise in salary for the girl.
Yeah, I always thought it was just their accents that were too difficult to interpret. I know Facebook allows people to speak in drivel, but this is ridiculous.
Let me step in and explain a few things:
-If you know anyone British and have them on facebook you'll notice they finish EVERY.GODDAMN.MESSAGE with "x" or "xx". I work for one of the largest corporations in the world and see that casual emails at work now and then.
-These people are kids working in a crappy shop in the middle of absolutely nowhere for god's sake. They're not exactly at the top of the literary ladder. If you compare the Times of London to the New York Times you will definitely notice dialectical differences but this is just an example of chavvery and IM-speak.
-Bradshawgate is in the north of England, near Bolton and Manchester, where they have accents SUCH AS YOU CAN'T IMAGINE. It's such a thick accent and dialect that most people from the south (ie London & environs) can barely understand them, nevermind North Americans.
-In that area of the world, "hiya" is pronounced more like "hiiiiiii-yuh" and is totally standard.
Hope this clears a few things up, my lovely culturally-isolated favourite blog :)
Jenny Jenny, where to begin... Oh never mind. I just don't care that you're MUCH MORE culturally sensitive than I am. In fact, nobody cares that you are. But thank you so much for your simplistic explanation though. I'll make a note of it for any future posting I might do.
Interesting how her first response is "k!" and then two days later she's upset?
If we are going to pick on the British kids use of English can I draw attention to "wouldn't never" phrase in the text of the article? Not sure if Ben was trying to be poetic or ironic or something, but a double negative?
Interesting how the girl is absolutely fine with it until 2 days later the mum gets involved.
She may not have been fine with it, she may have been stunned and didn't know what to do. Perhaps it isn't a universal experience, but I know many people whose initial reaction to insult, rejection, attack, et al was to be extremely polite in an attempt to get the hell out of the situation. The girl is 16 years old, she may well have thought she had to say something immediately (the timestamp of her first reply is within minutes of the firing) or she may have meant "ok" as in "message received". Cut her some slack, we all were sixteen and if you ever worked a cash register, I imagine there was once when your drawer didn't match the register (in my case, I once was the victim of a scam artists who ought something, returned it, wanted change while I had the register open, wait, no not in that denomination, oh, fine just give him the money back, and managed to leave with twenty dollars more than he started with).
Well, I can tell you as an American living in the UK that the Brits have definitely lost their grasp on the English language. Knowarramean, innit?
As an American living in America, we haven't much more of a grasp here, nom-sane?
I don't think this was on her wall...it looks as if it is a message in her inbox??
It actually looks like the old Wall-to-Wall formatting before Facebook changed to the new format.
I can't believe we're arguing over whose teenagers are worse. I find them all incomprehensible in type.
why are you lot going on about the way they speak/write ? its the firing method this is about - not the goddamn accent and typing.
All americans speak english good and write really good.
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