Category: Technology Author : Steven Hodson Posted: October 31, 2008
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Virgin Atlantic has no sense of haha - fires Facebook 13


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Virgin Atlantic fires 13 for Facebook activityRecently there has been a bunch os folks say that corporations need to lighten up and let their servants employees waste spend company time on social media sites like Facebook. Well apparently someone forgot to send the memo though to Virgin Atlantic Airways because 13 staff found themselves fired due to some silliness they had done on Facebook.

According to the BBC report the company began an investigation following claims that some of their staff had been using Facebook to criticize the the company’s safety standards and calling passengers chavs; which is apparently British slang for for rude louts (at least that’s what Owen Thomas at Valleywag says so I’ll go with that). The airline said that the crew’s behavior brought the company into disrepute. As a Virgin Atlantic rep said to the BBC

“Following a thorough investigation, it was found that all 13 staff participated in a discussion on the networking site Facebook, which brought the company into disrepute and insulted some of our passengers.

“It is impossible for these cabin crew members to uphold [our] high standards of customer service… if they hold these views.”

A spokesman for the airline added that there was “a time and a place for Facebook”.

“There is no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticise the very passengers who ultimately pay their salaries.

So much for Facebook being a place to hang and blow off some steam eh.



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  • reader
    you've missed the point, if you did your research properly, you would know that it was the passengers who picked up this group on facebook first, not virgin. It was the passengers who told the airline. It was the passengers who were upset from reading the comments and demanded action. of course the airline would have done something about it asap, even if it was the other way round.

    i dont think virgin is saying no to facebook, they are just saying no to bitching about customers publicily.

    no matter who you are or who you work for, thats not on. would you bitch about your readers publicly? i dont think so.
  • Whether people like it or not, Facebook and other social networks are public sites, which means anything you post on FB is the equivalent of shouting it repeatedly in public.

    These employees were foolish for making fun of Virgin passengers in the public eye. We don't know what the group page looked like, but if they used the Virgin logo as the group's main image then all their remarks would appear to be coming from the proverbial horse's mouth.

    Complain about your customers via messenger-or at least have the brains to make your group private.
  • Hilarious.

    I think Virgin have totally missed the point.

    Blogged here:

    http://www.jonathanmacdonald.com/?p=2579
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