Have you ever played hooky from school and then inadvertently ran into one of your teachers later that same day? Talk about an uncomfortable situation. Same goes for your job – if you call off sick with a migraine stating that staring at a computer screen all day at work will make it worse, don’t get caught using Facebook at home. One woman did and found herself out of the job.
I have to say, I sympathize with this woman. If she truly was using her phone to access Facebook, that is markedly different that a 17 inch flatscreen monitor. But it’s still a difficult argument to make.
Woman Fired For Using Facebook While Off Sick
City News Toronto – April 27, 2009
Social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter have changed the way many people communicate and have had an unexpected impact on the workplace. Some companies have instituted policies blocking the popular web destinations, because workers spend too much time chatting with friends and not enough on their jobs.
And many prospective employers now troll the sites to find out what possible hires are leaving out of their resumes and what their attitudes are really like, leading some to lose a shot at increasingly limited openings.
Which brings us to another cautionary tale about Facebook, and an employee who lost her job because of it – even though she wasn’t using it at work.
Last November, a woman in Zurich, Switzerland called her employer, an insurance company, and told them she was too ill to come into work that day. Part of her duties involved using a computer, but she claimed her cure involved lying in the dark and that she was unable to face the lighted screen.
