Virgin Atlantic Fires Employees For Facebook Comments

Jaunted.com has news today that 13 Virgin Atlantic employees were let go after they disparaged their employer and passengers on Facebook. Quoting from the page:

Fancy a spot of freedom of speech with your tea and crumpets? Jolly good, just watch it when you talk about your employer. A group of 13 cabin crew staff got sacked (I love that word) by Virgin Atlantic after company officials discovered that they had posted nasty things about customers to a semi-private discussion group on Facebook. The fancy-pants airline founded by Sir Richard Branson began an investigation on October 23 after passengers and other staff members came across the postings, which hilariously referred to certain customers as “chavs” and claim that some of the company’s 747s were infested with cockroaches.

It’s a shame to get kicked to the curb just for bitching about your job to your co-workers, since everybody who has ever had a job has done exactly that, but this crew should have known better. Facebook might lull people into a false sense of privacy, since groups are only open to members, but those sophisticated enough to work for an airline should know by now that anything you put into pixels could easily make it into the public domain.

The last point is particularly prescient. Readers of the ReputationDefender Blog are by now familiar with the case of the teacher who was fired over MySpace photos. There are also examples of people being prosecuted in court and having their MySpace profiles used as character evidence against them. In each case, and with the Virgin Atlantic case above, people are experiencing real world consequences that originate with their online activities.

Professionals, Students, Parents, Doctors, Lawyers and job seekers should be aware that others are forming opinions and making important decisions based on what they find online. Monitoring and managing one’s Online Reputation is a must in the digital age. Online Reputation Management is an exciting industry designed to help people from all walks of life present an accurate and current representation of themselves online. The ReputationDefender product suite monitors and protects individuals online and functions as Life Insurance for the Web ^TM. ReputationDefender encourages everyone to take control of their online identity and be proactive in crafting their personal internet brand.