Australian Workplace Tribunal Rules Facebook Unfriending Constitutes "Bullying"

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Australian Workplace Tribunal Rules Facebook Unfriending Constitutes "Bullying"

Posted by samzenpus on Friday September 25, 2015 @05:18AM from the don't-unfriend-me-bro dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Unfriending employees on Facebook and not saying good morning could constitute workplace bullying, an Australian workplace tribunal has ruled. Australia's Fair Work Commission decided that administrator Lisa Bird had bullied real estate agent Rachael Roberts after unfriending her from Facebook. The commission's deputy president Nicole Wells said the act showed a "lack of emotional maturity" and was "indicative of unreasonable behavior."

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What by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-25 05:20 · Score: 2, Insightful

The Fuck?
1. Re:What by Anubis+IV · 2015-09-25 05:43 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  The relevant quote, buried at the very end of the article:
  
  "The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," Josh Bornstein, a lawyer at the firm Maurice Blackburn, told ABC News.
  "What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a pattern of unreasonable behaviour, hostile behaviour, belittling behaviour over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviours including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."
  More or less, unfriending someone, in and of itself, is not bullying, nor was that the ruling. The unfriending that happened in this case was merely an example of hostile or otherwise unfriendly behavior aimed at the plaintiff by the defendant. Even so, none of the examples of "belittling behavior" strike me as significant enough to involve the court system. The very notion that the courts are being called in to resolve a personal spat strikes me as utterly ridiculous.
2. Re:What by TWX · 2015-09-25 05:48 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  So the key statement is, "The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," which is the exact opposite of what the Slashdot summary says.
  
  At most, unfriending someone on Facebook in this particular instance was merely another action in a series of actions that as a whole constituted systemic bullying.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
3. Re:What by cayenne8 · 2015-09-25 05:49 · Score: 2
  
  I think the proper and only concise and appropriate response to this has got to be...
  Are You Fucking Kidding Me???
  
  --
  Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
4. Re:What by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-25 06:18 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Yeah. Slashdot likes to use sensationalist headlines to get clicks. And it works.
5. Re:What by jfengel · 2015-09-25 06:21 · Score: 2
  
  Hey, thanks. This feels like how I used to read Slashdot, skipping past TFA to get the real story from the comments. Especially when it was obvious that TFS was rubbish.
6. Re:What by TWX · 2015-09-25 06:41 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Amused readers love your work. You're performing on their stage for free.
  
  Keep up the good work.
  
  --
  Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
7. Re:What by tbannist · 2015-09-25 07:25 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Fortunately, the answer is "Yes".
  
  --
  Fanatically anti-fanatical
8. Re:What by sexconker · 2015-09-25 09:13 · Score: 2
  
  Fun fact - that checkbox doesn't prevent the ads, and hasn't in about a decade.
What? by tripleevenfall · 2015-09-25 05:22 · Score: 5, Insightful

So, unfriending someone is bullying, presumably not accepting a friend request in the first place is bullying, maybe not sending someone a friend request is bullying too? We are all bullies now.
1. Re:What? by azav · 2015-09-25 05:26 · Score: 5, Funny
  
  Shut up, you bully.
  Why haven't you found me and sent a friend request to me yet?
  You bullying is oppressing me.
  You must be part of the patriarchy, you oppressor.
  
  --
  - Zav - Imagine a Beowulf cluster of insensitive clods...
2. Re:What? by tripleevenfall · 2015-09-25 05:28 · Score: 2
  
  Oh yeah, well, I accepted a friend request from one of your friends, but not from you!
  Say Uncle!!!
3. Re:What? by alvinrod · 2015-09-25 05:30 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  You'll even need to constantly send them messages telling them what a great person they are. Failure to do so will constitute bullying as a lack of positive emotional support can be considered stressful.
  
  Hopefully this idiocy is overturned in court.
4. Re:What? by vikingpower · 2015-09-25 05:36 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Just RTFA. This is not a general judgment; it is about one particular case.
  
  --
  Religous speak to God. Insane are spoken to by God. When all shut up, one can finally hear Shostakovich in peace
5. Re:What? by Locke2005 · 2015-09-25 05:43 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Supermodels have been bullying me for years now by refusing to go out with me!!! Help! I'm being oppressed!
  
  --
  I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
6. Re:What? by BradleyUffner · 2015-09-25 05:46 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  If you read the article you will find the it says the EXACT OPPOSITE of the Slashdot headline.
  
  "The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," Josh Bornstein, a lawyer at the firm Maurice Blackburn, told ABC News.
7. Re:What? by pak9rabid · 2015-09-25 05:47 · Score: 2
  
  Next up: not using Facebook is bullying.
8. Re:What? by gstoddart · 2015-09-25 05:53 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  I was OK with refusing to go out with me, but the restraining order was the last straw.
  
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  Lost at C:>. Found at C.
9. Re:What? by wardrich86 · 2015-09-25 05:54 · Score: 2
  
  Where's our beloved AC when we need him? Bullies say Unfriend. Unfriend says bullies. UNNFRIEEENND UNNIFFREEEND say bullies. You're all bullies. ...or something like that.
10. Re:What? by Alwin+Henseler · 2015-09-25 06:01 · Score: 2
  
  Supermodels have been bullying me for years now by refusing to go out with me!!! Help! I'm being oppressed!
  
  If at first, dating a supermodel does not succeed, redefine "supermodel".
11. Re:What? by khelms · 2015-09-25 06:02 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Reminds me of the Beavis and Butthead episode, Sexual Harrassment, where they sued a classmate because she was always "like giving them stiffies and stuff".
12. Re:What? by thegarbz · 2015-09-25 07:18 · Score: 2
  
  So, unfriending someone is bullying, presumably not accepting a friend request in the first place is bullying, maybe not sending someone a friend request is bullying too? We are all bullies now.
  Only in the Slashdot headline. The reality is that the Fair Work Tribunal has found a repeated pattern of bullying behaviour at one time even causing the employee to cry and that part of it was specific exclusion including but not at all limited to unfriending the person on Facebook over a workplace spat.
13. Re:What? by I_Lost_My_Puppy · 2015-09-25 10:14 · Score: 2
  
  I don't use FB at all - what does that make me?
  
  Sensible?
And people wonder why I quit Facebook years ago by xxxJonBoyxxx · 2015-09-25 05:23 · Score: 5, Insightful

And people wonder why I quit Facebook years ago. I can't wait until the place turns into a nest of libel lawsuit discovery in the next few years - my popcorn is ready.
1. Re:And people wonder why I quit Facebook years ago by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-25 05:32 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  That just means you are socially excluding everyone. Your anti-social aggression warrants charges for terrorism.
2. Re:And people wonder why I quit Facebook years ago by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-25 05:40 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  This isn't a Facebook Issue. This is a whiny self-centered wimpy fragile human, who should probably be put in a mental institution's padded cell, because obviously life is too hard for them.
  This is Facebook's target demographic.
3. Re:And people wonder why I quit Facebook years ago by swb · 2015-09-25 06:12 · Score: 2
  
  It must be comforting to think that everyone is wondering why you quit Facebook and spending their time wishing you'd come back and share your quips and insights on daily trivia.
  Unfortunately, it's not true. They're not wondering. They're not even talking about you.
Completely misleading click bait headline by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-25 05:26 · Score: 5, Informative

"The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," Josh Bornstein, a lawyer at the firm Maurice Blackburn, told ABC News.
"What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a pattern of unreasonable behaviour, hostile behaviour, belittling behaviour over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviours including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."
1. Re:Completely misleading click bait headline by tripleevenfall · 2015-09-25 05:51 · Score: 4, Funny
  
  Slashdot posted a BS headline. What happened next shocked everyone...
Clickbait by Anonymous Coward · 2015-09-25 05:27 · Score: 2, Informative

Article title: Facebook 'unfriending' can constitute workplace bullying, Australian tribunal finds
Article content: Legal experts said the case did not mean that unfriending a colleague on Facebook would automatically constitute bullying.
"The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," Josh Bornstein, a lawyer at the firm Maurice Blackburn, told ABC News.
"What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a pattern of unreasonable behaviour, hostile behaviour, belittling behaviour over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviours including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."
Read the article by gameboyhippo · 2015-09-25 05:28 · Score: 4, Informative

The title is misleading. The unfriending was part of a range of things that the one coworker did to her coworker.
1. Re:Read the article by BradleyUffner · 2015-09-25 05:48 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  The title is misleading. The unfriending was part of a range of things that the one coworker did to her coworker.
  It's more than misleading, it is an outright lie.
click-bait by Gravis+Zero · 2015-09-25 05:35 · Score: 4, Insightful

"What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a pattern of unreasonable behaviour, hostile behaviour, belittling behaviour over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviours including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."
it just so happened that unfriending happened in that period.
click-bait

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Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Re:What a crock of shit by gstoddart · 2015-09-25 05:45 · Score: 2

"The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying," Josh Bornstein, a lawyer at the firm Maurice Blackburn, told ABC News.
"What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a pattern of unreasonable behaviour, hostile behaviour, belittling behaviour over about a two-year period, which featured a range of different behaviours including berating, excluding and so on, constituted a workplace bullying."
First off, nobody said anything to the contrary.
Second, this is precisely WHY Facebook is annoying ... who do you want as your "friends"? If it's your actual friends, why are you including your co-workers? The reverse is also true.
If a co-worker said "hey, we should be friends on Facebook", my response is probably going to be along the lines of "or not".
But suddenly it seems to have become a social obligation to friend everybody. Which is ridiculous.
I don't want a single account for my "friends" and my "work acquaintances" ... I wouldn't want those people in the same damned room. I wouldn't invite both sets to the same event. Why the hell would I want them in common on Facebook?

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Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Totally misleading -article COMPLETELY contradicts by wonkey_monkey · 2015-09-25 05:47 · Score: 5, Insightful

Australian Workplace Tribunal Rules Facebook Unfriending Constitutes "Bullying"

They didn't rule that at all. Just read the last paragraph of the article:

"The Fair Work Commission didn't find that unfriending someone on Facebook constitutes workplace bullying,"
That is a complete contradiction of the headline and the opening of the summary.
If Slashdot had a shred of integrity left, it would retract this story in its entirety and apologise for talking bollocks.

--
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
As usual.... by JustAnotherOldGuy · 2015-09-25 06:19 · Score: 2

....I'm so glad I don't have a Facebook account.
Friend me, unfriend me, ignore me, whatever......I'm just happy to not have this drama-magnet in my life.

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Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Re:Good fucking morning by PopeRatzo · 2015-09-25 06:37 · Score: 2

Welcome to Australia, the land of idiots.
And death adders.

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You are welcome on my lawn.