One man’s obsession with changing his Facebook status almost got him in hot water at his office yesterday – and his Facebook quotes mania nearly cost him his job. David Perry, who works in a bank in Central London, was fined by his employer and warned that if he continues to change his Facebook status at work during office hours then he could face disciplinary action and dismissal.
Facebook quotes
In one of the strangest court cases in recent history, it turned out that the employee had been accessing Facebook from work, usually not an offence, but after the business installed a timer on the network to see how long people had been spending on different websites it became clear that he had been on the social network for more than 75% of his day.
When quizzed about it, he claimed that he had not been actively using Facebook chat or looking at people’s wall posts, but merely staying logged in so that he could change his Facebook quote to something funny or original. This led to a heated argument with his employer, and the subsequent legal action. The court found in favour of the company and warned Mr Perry that as an employee he had a duty to do whatever the IT policy of his company suggested, even if he didn’t agree with it.
Mr Perry was unavailable for comment late night Thursday, but his Facebook status update read that he would appeal against the verdict and said that everyone should have access to funny Facebook quotes whenever they wanted.