Word to the wise: Don’t delete your colleagues from Facebook and always say ‘good morning’.
Navigating the colliding worlds of work and social media is never easy.
And it might get even more complicated now that a workplace tribunal has decided that unfriending a colleague on Facebook can be considered a form of workplace bullying.
The Australian Financial Review reports that Tasmanian real estate agent Rachael Roberts took her boss’ wife and sales administrator Lisa Bird to the Fair Work Commission, claiming Ms Bird had bullied her.
She claimed Ms Bird accused her of being a “naughty little school girl running to the teacher” after she complained about the display of her properties.
She discovered later that day that Ms Bird had deleted her as a Facebook friend – a move the tribunal found showed a “lack of emotional maturity”.
“Mrs Bird took the first opportunity to draw a line under the relationship with Ms Roberts … when she removed her as a friend on Facebook as she did not like Ms Roberts and would prefer not to have to deal with her,” commission deputy president Nicole Wells said.
Ms Bird was also found to have acted unreasonably by not acknowledging Ms Roberts in the morning and not delivering her printing and photocopying as she did to other employees.
It just goes to show that there is more at risk with having colleagues as Facebook friends than them seeing photos of you at the beach when you’re meant to be home sick.
Sometimes, it’s just not worth the hassle.
(Or, have colleagues as Facebook friends and don’t be a dick. Your call.)
Are you Facebook friends with your colleagues?
Top Comments
I read in an another article that the unfriending wasn't the sole reason it was just part of a list.
Still I don't agree with unfriending being considered part of bullying behaviour, not wishing to be friends anymore with someone should be everyone's right! Also wanting to minimise the social contact with someone who you are forced to work with but don't particularly like is completely understandable, being nasty to them is bullying.
With is supposed to be about work, it's not supposed to be about friendships, of course work life is more enjoyable if you find like minded people that you can become friends with, but the reality is some people just don't gel, in these cases I have found the best option is to keep interaction related to work issues and be civil when doing so. So if you don't like "Joan" I think it's fine not to pretend you do, but at the same time you can be professional and civil in your dealings with Joan, eg "Hi Joan, just wondered have you finished that report? You have, thanks that's good." That's civility, you shouldn't be required to be besties with Joan, having her as a friend on facebook. And if you don't want to say good morning why should you have to. I'm hired to do a job not to pretend to like everyone, but I am prepared to treat everyone civilly, that should be the requirement. I'm very concerned the way this country is calling everything bullying that is clearly not bullying. There are people being genuinely bullied it makes a mockery of what they are going through if we decide that the legal definition of bully is every person who has ever disliked a co worker.
It's disappointing that the headline here is (and has been in all media) about Facebook unfriending which is obviously not bullying on its own. There seem to be other issues at play that do constitute psychological bullying. Let's face it, workplace bullying is rife and this woman's experience could have been used to help victims feel comfortable in coming forward and help stamp it out. Instead its (and she's) being laughed off as trivial.