Apple Fires Employee for Shooting Mouth on Facebook

A site dealing exclusively with news and information about Apple’s retail organization (and apparently the individual staff) reveals in a new report that Cupertino is coming down hard on those employees who use social networking channels, or forums to badmouth the company.

ifoAppleStore reports that the British government’s Employment Tribunal sided with Apple after the firing of a retail store employee who badmouthed the electronics vendor on Facebook.

The regulator said Apple had every formal right to do so, as it has a clear policy that prohibits negative comments posted to social sites.

Apple cited “gross misconduct” on the fired employee identified only as Crisp. This person had initially appealed to the UK labor agency, saying that the posts had been tagged as private.

However, an analysis on the People Management Web site by attorney Jamie Hamnett of the law firm Addleshaw Goddard LLP highlights a key element of the tribunal’s decision in taking Apple’s side.

According to the lawyer “[Apple] made it absolutely plain throughout the induction process that commentary on Apple products, or critical remarks about the brand, were strictly prohibited.”

Hammett also noted that the tribunal believed the comments “would be particularly damaging for Apple as image is so central to its success.”

In that respect, “Apple successfully argued that it was justified and proportionate to limit this right (of posting) in order to protect its commercial reputation against potentially damaging posts.”

The attorney also pointed out that private or not private, Facebook posts can get out and fall into the wrong hands. Everyone can agree that any comment taken out of context can be deemed nefarious.

Crisp had apparently ‘friended’ one of his co-workers who subsequently gained access to the comments and ultimately copied and shared them with the Apple store manager.

Let that be a lesson to everyone working in any organization that takes great pride in keeping a clear image.