She was scolded, her properties weren’t displayed in the front window of the real estate agency, she didn’t get the printouts all the other agents got, and the agency principal’s wife wouldn’t even say good morning.
But being unfriended on Facebook? Well, that was just the last straw.
In a case brought before Australia’s Fair Work Commission, a tribunal has found that Lisa Bird, the sales administrator and wife of the agency’s principal, showed a “lack of emotional maturity” when she unfriended Rachael Roberts on Facebook.
The move was “indicative of unreasonable behaviour”, it found.
The case was brought by Roberts, a real estate agent with 10 years’ industry experience, who had been working at Tasmanian real estate agency VIEW Launceston since November 2012.
Roberts had taken her case to the Fair Work Commission, alleging that she’d been bullied by her employer – mostly, by Lisa Bird.
As the FWC’s decision describes it, Roberts had complained to Lisa Bird’s husband – agency principal James Bird – that her properties weren’t getting a fair representation among the properties displayed in the agency’s front window.
Lisa Bird reportedly responded by calling a meeting and accusing Roberts of being a “naughty little school girl running to the teacher”.
Roberts said that Lisa Bird had pointed at her during the meeting, told her to sit down when she tried to leave, and physically blocked the doorway.
Roberts left the building in tears. Sitting in her car, it occurred to her that Lisa Bird might make a Facebook comment about the incident, so she checked her mobile app.
That’s when she found that Lisa Bird had deleted Roberts as a Facebook friend, within minutes of the incident.
That constitutes bullying, according to the FWC:
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.
It wasn’t just the unfriending that constituted bullying. As commission deputy president Nicole Wells described in her decision, the unfriending was just one of a host of other complaints.
Those included Bird refusing to say good morning to Roberts, Roberts not being allowed to get her photocopies and printing delivered like other employees, and Bird using snail mail instead of email for one of Roberts’ rental deals, losing Roberts the deal.
Roberts was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and received medication and treatment from a psychologist.
James Bird argued that none of this would happen again, given that VIEW Tasmania and VIEW Launceston have since established an anti-bullying policy and manual.
Wells “respectfully” disagreed, writing in her decision that Roberts’ employer seems to consider all of its behaviour to be pretty kosher:
The evidence at hearing was that Mr Bird, Mrs Bird and View did not consider that any of the behaviour complained of constituted bullying. A lack of understanding as to the nature of the behaviour displayed at work has the proclivity to see the behaviour repeated in future by Mrs Bird. I conclude that there is a risk of Ms Roberts continuing to be bulled at work.
While it might seem like a stretch to include unfriending as a bullying tactic, bear in mind that what we do on social media carries different weight if we’re in a managerial position.
Indeed, there are those who urge people not to Facebook-friend even your colleagues. After all, what if one of them gets promoted to be your boss?
On the flip side of the coin, some companies require employees to connect with their employers on social media.
In the US, the Arkansas House in February voted to lift a ban on employers requiring employees to connect with them on social media, thereby allowing bosses to force workers to friend them on Facebook or follow them on Twitter.
That bill died in the Senate committee.
While Arkansas may have tried to force friending on employees, many other states this year have tried to protect their privacy.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of 14 September 2015, legislation on the issue had been introduced or considered in at least 23 states during 2015, while nine states enacted such legislation.
Image of unfriend button courtesy of Shutterstock.com
Sammie
On one side you have cyber bullying, on the other you have Facebook unfriending and in the middle there are a lot of smart gadgets with an equal number of not so smart people.
Bob
I see it all over. Turn on tablet – turn off brain.
KEN
Bird seems to be the spoiled brat at the company but the unfriending (if it were her account) seems to be her business.
Some people just have to use every trick they can legal or not to have their revenge.
Then again……some people just can’t take a hnt and get another job.
Ardie
What right does a person have to run an employee out of their job? If the employee is a bad employee then maybe I can understand why someone would go out of their way to mess with an employee, but that doesn’t seem to be the case here. If anything, Bird is just picking on this lady for no reason. The facebook thing is irrelevant, I agree but that’s the not the issue here. This lady can’t even do her job properly because Bird has it out for her.
dave@0x4141.net
So what? I think that this type of “legislating good taste” in the workplace is totally inappropriate. We don’t need laws to handle this type of situation: the workplace environment itself can handle this. If this company gets a reputation for harboring bullies, word will quickly get around and will result in damage to the company through high employee turnover, difficulty recruiting and maybe even lost business. Plus, we don’t know the other side of the story: Mrs. Roberts might have been a b*tch herself. Regardless, I don’t think that having your coworkers or boss “be nice” is a fundamental right. There wasn’t any discrimination going on here, people were just being mean to this woman. It’s another attempt to legislate good taste, and I don’t like it.
Michael Spaulding
I wouldn’t say someone has a right to run someone else out of another workplace. But, by the same token, it’s not the only job available. If it were me, I would have been looking for work elsewhere long ago. I’ve had bosses I thought were jerks, but I didn’t take them to court, I got a new job and walked out on ’em.
Niall
Wasted my time reading “Facebook drama”.
Carolyn
I think the stats at http://www.ncsl.org/research/telecommunications-and-information-technology/employer-access-to-social-media-passwords-2013.aspx were misunderstood. Legislation “in 23 states” is regarding the topic of employee privacy in general, not specifically attempting to require employees to cede to employer requests.
Anna Brading
Thanks for pointing that out. We’ve now fixed the blog post.
Lisa Vaas
Ditto: thanks for the correction.
Jason
why cant people grow some thicker skin. For pete’s sake. Life isn’t always fair. Go work somewhere else.
Ardie
Sometimes it isn’t as easy as just working somewhere else. The article says that the lady has 10 years experience in real estate. Chances are she’s been at this place for a while. The facebook issue is really stupid and on that one I do agree with you. But what right does a person have to make someone’s time at work miserable and embarrassing them just for laughs? Especially a superior who’s supposed to show a proper example of leadership, not act like an elementary school bully and making it harder for her employee to do her job. That’s not how a business is supposed to be run.
Dan
If a company requires you to befriend your co-workers on social networking sites, then maybe its time to look elsewhere for employment. No organization should mandate that employees connect via Social Networking. Requiring this is a true invasion of privacy, and as such should not be condoned. The court was wrong here.
Ardie
The case discussed in this article isn’t related to that issue. Nakesecurity just threw the possibility in as a possible reason for why the lady was friends with her mean boss on facebook. The court that ruled in this case had no say on the matter that you’re complaining about.
ITGUY
That’s not what they said. Employers require employees friend/like the company for multiple (bad) reasons. One of them is to expand their image of user base. Another is to give the employer intimate access to employees’ profiles to watch for policy violations.
Reader
This story has all the hallmarks of workplace bullying.
• Roberts’ … properties weren’t getting a fair representation among the properties displayed in the agency’s front window.
• … Lisa Bird had pointed at [ Roberts ] during the meeting, told her to sit down when she tried to leave, and physically blocked the doorway.
• … Bird had deleted Roberts as a Facebook friend, within minutes of the incident.
• … Bird [refused] to say good morning to Roberts
• Roberts [was not] allowed to get her photocopies and printing delivered like other employees,
• … Bird [used] snail mail instead of email for one of Roberts’ rental deals, losing Roberts the deal.
As described above, the boss’s wife intentionally sabotaged, publicly humiliated, and socially excluded her target – all of which amount to acts of bullying. Once the target leaves this particular workplace, the boss’s wife will probably soon target someone else.
Bullies undermine work places in many ways, which I will not get into here. Unfortunately, they are hard to get rid of – either because they are popular or because their superior(s) know it is much easier to get rid of the target(s).
There are bullies in many (if not most) work places. Bullies are often socially and professionally well-connected and are more popular than their target(s). They are often promoted while their target(s) – whose reputation the bully (or bullies) may have ruined – get fired. Once their target(s) get fired, bullies soon target another victim – often within 2 weeks.
Bullies are sadistic and they always need to have a target. They do not bully others due to low self-esteem – quite the opposite; bullies think they are awesome and that they are superior to their target(s). You cannot reason with bullies. If you cannot avoid a bully, I suspect a carrot-and-stick approach may be a more effective way to deal with them.
The solution is not for the target to just toughen up or leave. The solution is to stop bullying in all areas of life – including in the workplace. Workplace bullying is more common than many people seem to think.
ITGUY
Very good reply. Thank you. opened my eyes about my jerky boss!
Bill
It is crazy how social media is taken so seriously in modern society. I remember the old days when social media mainly consisted of good ole Myspace.
ITGUY
I work for a bully. I got the job because the former employee walked out after the boss called him an idiot in front of all of his (mine now) subordinates, when it was actually the boss’s fault. He also had called him stupid for being a conservative republican (which I am not, but I recognize the right to different opinions) that doesn’t believe in evolution.
He has also driven out other employees, and there are four of us right now wishing we had a way to do something about it. He has been here for over twenty years, through three CEOs and clawed his way up from the maintenance department.
I am his current favorite target, and I have a hard time remembering he is a person, with all the personal attacks on me that are direct results of orders/directives he gave me.
Just Jon
Not sure how the court would treat it, but personal surveillance devices (like the ones that news agencies use for undercover stories) could be used to collect damming evidence to take the company and bully (named together in suit) to court. I think that the evidence would be viewed friendly and admissible by the court if it showed dangerous and/or malicious acts in clear violation of law. Or you can just tell the bully, hey I’m recording you, and you’d probably see a change in behavior.
Reader
Just Jen, sorry but I respectfully disagree with you on both points.
ITGUY could tell the bully that he or she is recording the bully – but I’m not sure that confronting a bully is ever a good idea.
ITGUY could try to sue the bully and his or her employer – but ITGUY would probably never find another job in the U.S. again.
If an employee tries to sue his or her employer, the employer will outlawyer the employee. Judges and juries usually side with the party that has the most money and power.
Many employers in the U.S. will not hire new employees who are known to have tried to sue anyone anywhere for any reason.