Picture this: there's someone you work with that you recently have a rift with. Since the situation has gotten personal and tense between the two of you, you decide to unfriend this certain co-worker on your Facebook account. Now that does not sound so bad, right? It is your account and how you choose to deal with the rift.
But a tribunal has recently ruled that unfriending an employee using the Facebook Inc. platform is bullying in the workplace. According to Wallstreet Observer, unfriending a co-worker on the social networking site demonstrates an immature emotional state and unreasonable behavior. The ruling has gotten mixed responses on online communities.
The ruling has been made by the Fair Work Commission, after a woman called Rachel Roberts brought her case to the Commission's attention. Roberts, a real estate agent, accused sales administrator Mrs. Lisa Bird of calling her names and subsequently unfriending her in the social networking site. This is after Roberts complained to James Bird, the agency principal, of lack of representation regarding her properties.
Bird was said to have called Roberts a "naughty little school girl" in a meeting following the complaint. Nicole Wells, the Commission's deputy president, believes that Bird pressing the unfriend button is indication that she dislikes Roberts and that she does not want to be dealing with her anymore.
The Committe also said that the behavior Mrs. Bird displayed was "provocative and disobliging." The ruling, however, raised a lot of questions regarding how the work organizations go around in dealing with issues among co-workers. The Commission could only instruct the accused and her other colleagues to "stop bullying at work." Facebook has not commented on the ruling.
Making friends on Facebook is easy, and it is not easy to determine who has unfriended who among the hundreds and thousands of friends one makes. But apps have been made especially to determine who has done the unfriending. What would you do if you have been unfriended?
