Facebook gaffe earns woman the sack

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 27 Apr 2009 at 09:42

A Swiss insurance worker has lost her job for using Facebook while off sick.

The unamed woman reportedly told her employers she could not work in front of a computer as she needed to lie in the dark, and asked for time off work which was granted.

However, she was then spotted on Facebook, which insurer Nationale Suisse says in a statement had destroyed its trust in the employee.

"This abuse of trust, rather than the activity on Facebook, led to the ending of the work contract," it says.

The woman told the 20 Minuten newspaper that she had been surfing Facebook in bed using her iPhone.

She accused her employer of spying on her by accessing her Facebook profile via a mysterious friend request.

Nationale Suisse rejected the accusation of spying saying the employee's Facebook activity had been stumbled across by a colleague in November, before use of the social network site was blocked in the company.