In London, a woman was fired by text message:
Katy Tanner, a 21-year-old sales assistant, received the message while she was off work with a migraine, the South Wales Echo newspaper said Friday.
The text message said: “We will not require your services anymore…Thank you for your time with us.”
This seems inappropriate, no? Its brevity has a place in our culture, but there are some conversations for which the cell phone text message fails to capture everything that needs to be said. These include:
-”U R fired. Thx!”
-”I quit. Need reference.”
-”Sorry found new wife”
-”Found ur husband’s body. Plz call us @911.”
-”Test results +”
The employer attempted to justify his decision:
The retailer claims it tried to reach Tanner directly “five or six times” and passed on a message through her boyfriend before the text was sent.
And store director Ian Besbie added that the dismissal method was fair because texting was a part of “youth culture”.
Youth culture? That’s the answer that magically makes this okay? We’ll come back to that.
Why would you attempt to explain yourself by admitting after a few round of phone tag you sent her boyfriend to do her dirty work for you? How does that conversation go, exactly?
Boss: Hi, is Katy home?
B/f: No, she’s out. Can I take a message?
Boss: Sure. Can you tell her she’s fired?
B/f: Come again?
Boss: Yeah, she’s fired. No need to come into work. And if you could thank her for her time with us, that’d be great. Toodles.
Sounds to me like this is one conflict-averse supervisor. He calls a few times when she’s not around, tries to get her boyfriend to proxy-can her, and when that doesn’t work, he texts her to cut her loose while she’s out sick. Methinks you might have been able to let her know when she called in sick, which the article indicates she did.
But hey, texting’s a part of youth culture, right? So that means it’s okay. By extension, then, this company — a “body-piercing and jewellery shop” that employs 120 people — should embrace all kinds of new things in the workplace (a body piercing joint sounds pretty laid back, after all). Ecstasy, speed, coke, and LSD are a must. Perhaps they could have a Masturbate-a-thon during work. This psycho thinks “youth culture” finds amputations a turn-on. Can I lop off a toe on the clock?
In the US, this kind of justification would let us engange in open expression of our hatred of this administration, since 80% of kids hate Bush. I’d like to see the teenaged grocery clerk get away with wearing this to work*:
Just because something is used by young people doesn’t mean it can’t be used inappropriately. Just ask the members of teenage satanic sex orgy cults.
*For the record, that would be way cool. After all, who makes a better billboard for information dissemination than a checker at the grocery store?
Test results ”
Second message: “Baby’s urs, jrk”?
Ooop, should be:
“Test Results ”
Second message: “Baby’s urs, jrk”
Whoa, amputations a turn-on? Masturbate-a-thon? Damn, I’m 22 and I feel old, if all this shit is really true.
Damn, that’s positively Dilbert-esque.
well what isn’t, really…
Youth culture killed my dog.
Jus’ sayin’.
Yay, we’re age mates. But our age is balkanized into groups, so I know all about the suicidegirls, furries and use of the word teh, but yea. whatever is popular with the sorostitutes,well, I’ve never heard of it.
use of the word teh
Heh. Not sure about everything else, but I use “teh” all the time. That said, rock on. 22 is an excellent age, I must admit.
I’ve tried and tried, but the only answer I get is a series of grunts