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01 Sep 2009
A New Zealand accountant has sued her employer after being sacked for writing what her company described as confrontational emails.
Vicki Walker, formerly a financial controller with ProCare Health in New Zealand, is suing for unfair dismissal after her employer said that she was causing disruption in the office with emails using block capitals, bold typeface and red text. Upper case letters in emails are considered to indicate shouting, and may be seen as rude by some.
"To say that [email] is confrontational is ridiculous," Walker told the New Zealand Herald. "I have spent thousands defending myself and there are so many issues that are unresolved that I want to take them up on."
Walker was awarded NZ$17,000 (£7,155) by the court for damages and loss of earnings, and plans to take additional legal action.
The case highlights the importance of workplace email policies. The court ruled against ProCare Health after it was revealed that the company had no policy on email usage, and that was not realistic to fire the employee in this case.
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Do you agree?
No written policy, no manners
I guess we better think twice before complaining about bad attitude of waiters and waitressess in restaurants. They should be enttiled to it, even if you're not the customer who gave her a bad day, and the restaurant probably doesn't have friendliness and politeness detailed and defined in written policies.
Posted by: Zee 03 Sep 2009
Confrontational e-mails
For people who consider language should be precise and grammatically correct and abhor the affect text language is having on the art of correct communication, like me, this is a sad case. You need to be able to convey irony or sarcasm, and without the emphasis of the spoken word how else is the subtlety of the English language to be conveyed.? In current jargon the employers should "Get a life".
Posted by: Bill Frampton 02 Sep 2009
Nasty format emails
I'll bet the nasty format of the emails were just the tip of the iceberg - symbolic of a bigger problem.
Posted by: Dee 02 Sep 2009