Dear Reader,
In the spirit of April Fools Day, I thought I would begin today’s Bulletin with a few weird workplace stories I’ve stumbled across recently.
Check these out:
Worker fired for all-caps e-mails
An employee in Auckland, New Zealand, was fired for sending e-mail messages in all-capital letters. The employer claimed that the employee’s co-workers had complained about her “shouty” and confrontational e-mails.
After the employee filed an unfair dismissal claim, she was awarded $11,500 on the premise that the company had no official e-mail style guide and therefore, her messages did not amount to grounds for dismissal.
Aggressive Interview Tactics
As if the interview process wasn’t already stressful enough, a growing number of employers in Russia have adopted a new interviewing technique – shouting at candidates, accusing them of lying about their qualifications and throwing their resumes in their face.
Known as “stressovoye” or stressful interview, Russian companies say it helps them hire the best staff by testing how applicants react to difficult situations.
(And you thought asking your employees what their weaknesses are was a tough question!)
The Farting Chair
A 48-year-old female teacher at a secondary school in Bristol, England, sought damages of £1 million for sex discrimination and constructive dismissal claiming she had been forced to sit in a chair that made embarrassing sounds every time she moved.
“It was a regular joke that my chair would make these farting sounds and I regularly had to apologise that it wasn’t me, it was my chair,” she said. According to the employee, her requests for a new chair had been repeatedly ignored while male colleagues were given sleek, executive-style chairs. Not surprisingly, her claim was thrown out.
Have you come across any weird or wacky stories like these ones? Or do you just have a comment or suggestion about the Bulletin?
Either way, I’d love to hear from you. Just shoot me an email – claire@workplacehandbook.com.au.
Hope you have a fabulous Easter weekend!
Until next time…
Claire Berry
Workplace Bulletin
