Deleting a friend on Facebook could have serious consequences, after an Australian work tribunal found a woman in Tasmania, who unfriended a colleague on the social network following an argument, guilty of workplace bullying.

The Fair Work Commission ruled that Lisa Bird, who works at the View estate agency in Launceston, was guilty of bullying sales administrator Rachel Roberts. Bird was accused of showing a "lack of emotional maturity" for having the nerve not to say "good morning" to her colleague and subsequently deleting her from Facebook.

Bird decided to unfriend Roberts after an argument. Roberts had complained that Bird, the wife of the agency's principle, James Bird, had acted aggressively towards her in order to put her down in front of the other workers. Bird called Roberts a "naughty little schoolgirl for running to the teacher."

Roberts subsequently wanted to check the social network to see if her work colleague had written anything on the platform about the altercation. However, Roberts found that Bird had decided to delete her altogether.

"The 'schoolgirl' comment... is evidence of an inappropriate dealing with Ms Roberts which was provocative and disobliging. I am of the view that Mrs Bird took the first opportunity to draw a line under the relationship with Ms Roberts on 29 January 2015, 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," the tribunal stated, as cited by the News.com.au.

Other complaints listed by Roberts include Mrs Bird failing to say hello to her in the morning and for not giving her copies of printouts, which were given to all the other staff members.

However, legal experts have stopped short of saying that deleting someone from Facebook automatically constitutes bullying.

"The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," Josh Bornstein, a lawyer at the firm Maurice Blackburn, told ABC News.

"What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a pattern of unreasonable behavior, hostile behavior, belittling behavior over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviors including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."

I've always said.
"Facebook is the devil's playground".
I was right. Yay.

it is kinda silly... i've seen all sorts of childlike behavior from so-called adults on there...

The only somewhat general annoyance I have with this mess, is the fad of blaming "political correctness" for all kinds of stuff.

It's not that PC has no problems with it, it certainly is BS. However, all it is, is a new name for a behavior that's been going on amongst humans since forever.

People get mad at each other, and think up snotty things to say about them. Always have done. When I was a kid, people would complain that someone wasn't patriotic enough, or Christian enough, or that a woman wasn't feminine enough, or that a man wasn't manly enough, and on and on.

That was all Political Correctness too, they just didn't call it that.

Is the effort to try to control other people by putting snotty labels on them getting worse these days? Intermittently, I'd say yes, but again, I've seen this sort of thing ebb and flow like tides, since before I was born.

Hell, every new years, some dumb "News Media" outlet publishes a front-page sort of "story" listing what's going to be considered "In," and what's going to be considered "out" in the coming year.

And big companies have been firing people in a panic after some minor bit of nonsense which should have been kept private gets published about them, again, since companies with public concerns have existed.

So yeah, is it a drag, and damn right stupid that corporations are spying on employees facebook pages and firing people for the dumb stuff people put there? Hell yeah. Should it be stopped? I don't think so, since it's really no different than the same idiot deciding to put a big sign on their front porch pitching a stupid fuss, and restricting companies from firing idiots for being idiots isn't really something that I think should be too heavily legislated.

But I do wish we could get past this ridiculous myth that this crap only started happening after some idiot thought up the Political Correctness label.

you're right, it has always been going on, but being PC isn't the answer for most of this stupidity... people just need to understand that not saying 'good morning' means absolutely nothing, and shouldn't even waste their time worrying about stupid azz things such as this... people have all sorts of reasons to not like each other, no need to make up others...

Like many things it's how you use it.
If you are going to display all your drama then you are asking for trouble.

I have Facebook and I use it to keep contact with family and friends all over the world.
I have made new connection and reconnected with old friends from the past.
I refuse to put anything negative on it.
I post a lot of positive stuff and the feed back has helped a lot of people.
I also choose to use it for educational uses as well.

Sorry but I am not a pc person. There is a new no no word every day. You can be non vulgar without being pc. I stay on fb for friends and family....not drama. They get deleted

It's been a month or so...

But,
I had some tard on fb, threatening me with a lawsuit, because I chose to decline her friend request.

the Chief of the Sandbox Police is unavailable for comment
due to the ongoing investigation....

http://drhurd.com/outlawing-cyber-violence-the-next-big-thing/

sure glad PC is dead,even at the Untied Nations!

and i love it when people unfriend me
its like the trash getting up and taking its self out all on its own

Gee.... somebody got their little feelings hurt?

Soon it will be better to just shoot someone rather than argue with them

so which was it was she let go because

1. she unfriended someone

or

2. (as the bosses wife),she was gulty of: unreasonable behavior, hostile behavior, belittling behavior over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviors including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."

i think the bigger thing is a stupid tribunal that wasted time on this stupidity...

I picture their boss as Roger Murtaugh from Lethal Weapon...."I'm gettin too old for this $hit"...

i was picturing nap time shenanigans at pre school... are we even adults anymore?

The article was kind of convoluted but I didn't see a PC issue in it. The actual issue was a disagreement between employees that got stupid. Which disagreements often do. And if they weren't acting stupid on FB it would have still happened in person on the job.

nice, willow... how have you been?

What consequences?

A bunch of people looked at reports of behavior and said "yep, taken all together, these acts, all together, live up to the definition of bullying."

There's no firing, no fine, no jail time, no arrest, no real consequences mentioned in the OP.

So

Not really.

At best all the article you post says is some people decided that a particular woman's behavior as presented to them lives up to the current definition of workplace bullying.

Maybe if you posted anything about what happens to her now, like she's barred from the internet, or fired, or sent to prison, it would be "P.C. outa control."


Internet and social media laws are kinda new.
It's not like there is a code of Hammurabi for internet protocol.
Tribunals are needed otherwise there would be a hell of a lot of kids in prison for raping and pwning people all over the internet.

PC is way outa control if they need a tribunal to settle workplace disputes, we are supposed to be adults... maybe they can have an adult monitor on the playgound as well?