Facebook Foibles Could Cost You Your Career

The British newspaper The Independent reported that Virgin Atlantic sacked 13 flight attendants for criticizing the airline's flight safety standards and describing its passengers as chavs on Facebook.  And yes, I didn’t know what chav meant either.  Apparently it’s the British equivalent of white trash. 

In a statement, the airline said: “Virgin Atlantic can confirm that members of its cabin crew will be leaving the company after breaking staff policies due to totally inappropriate behavior.  Following a thorough investigation, it was found that 13 staff participated in a discussion on the networking site Facebook, which brought the company into disrepute and insulted some of our passengers.”  The online messages also reportedly claimed the airline's jet engines were replaced four times in one year and that planes were full of cockroaches.

A spokesman for the airline said: "There is a time and a place for Facebook. But there is no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticize the very passengers who pay their salaries."  He added: "We have numerous internal channels for our staff to feed back legitimate and appropriate issues relating to the company."

People, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again.  You must assume that everything you post on a social networking profile – either your own or someone else’s – will be read by your employer.  Even if a site is password protected, there’s no guarantee that the content won’t get into the wrong hands.  It’s bad enough to gossip verbally about colleagues or customers at work, but leaving a paper trail that’s proof of your disloyalty?  Not smart.  Not only have these flight attendants lost their jobs, but they may have destroyed their careers because what other airline would want to hire them now?  Please don’t let the same thing happen to you.

Comments

[Erika with Qvisory]

It's so incredible to me to think that people still haven't gotten the message that employers are definitely paying attention to Facebook and MySpace nowadays. A lot of people have gotten their hands slapped, it's time to start watching your you-know-what.

[Alexandra Levit]

Erika - I know. It's kind of like when I go into an organization and the twenty-somethings balk because HR asked me to talk about appropriate business casual wear. Yes they should know this stuff, but obviously they aren't doing it right, or I wouldn't get asked to teach it.

[Becca]

I'd like to know if any of what those workers were saying held any truth to them. I'm flying Virgin airlines in 3 months and I am already terrified of flying.