If only Shaq had been around to tell Vicki Walker to turn off her caps lock, the health-care accountant may not have had to sue her employer for firing her over emails they deemed too "shouty." Yes "shouty." We're guessing that means people felt she was screaming at them when she wrote in CAPS and bold blue letters. Co-workers at the New Zealand company ProCare Health thought her email style was too confrontational, and so she was let go because she was creating "office friction."
Vicki understandably thought this was some BS, and brought a suit against ProCare. The courts sided with her, deciding that bad netiquette is not grounds for dismissal, especially since her office doesn't provide employees with an email style guide. She was awarded a little more than $11,000.
Wow, really? We wonder how much we can get if we start drafting all our correspondence in Wingdings.
Wow, really? We wonder how much we can get if we start drafting all our correspondence in Wingdings.
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Wednesday 02 September
By MissZ
There is a little more to this story than just emails in all caps. She also "communicated" via email by bolding her text, using red font and italics. So I can see that emails from her would have been very annoying and someone could view them as confrontational. Enough cause to be fired? Probably not. But definitely not professional and she should have received a reprimand of some sort first.
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