Young man almost fired over HR rule Australian workers need to be aware of this

A young man has revealed that he was almost fired after his boss read the messages he had exchanged on the company’s communication platform about another colleague.

Owen Willis, who is originally from the UK and lives in Sydney, Brisbane and the Gold Coast, explains that he was 17 years old at the time and didn’t understand the ‘rules of business’.

“This is your reminder that messages sent through company platforms can and will be read by your employer,” the marketing expert said in a video posted to social media.

He explained that a colleague he could always “joke” with was using the company’s Skype Business account to message each other.

“We would just sit there all day and talk s**t. Like work related stuff and then non-work related stuff,” Mr Willis said.

“We talked about everyone. For example, if someone annoyed me, I would say, ‘Guess what this person did,’ and I would put that in my Skype for Business conversation.”

However, Willis said he had no idea the chat history could be read by HR, his manager and his team leader.

“Obviously we used a lot of swearing in the messages, so I suspect that was picked up somehow,” Willis said.

“Or maybe we said something inappropriate, and it was, I don’t know, flagged as such.”

His colleague kept sending him messages about a female colleague and her clothing style.

The company Willis worked for was located in a commercial building and employees were expected to dress neatly and appropriately for the office space.

Willis explained that the female colleague often wore a T-shirt and “Thailand elephant pants” and got away with it – something his colleague was not happy about.

“I never said anything bad about her, but my coworker, who I texted all the time, talked about it every day,” Willis said.

“They caught my colleague, who I was messaging. He was fired and never showed up for work again.”

Owen Willis explained how he almost got fired from his first job after his boss read the messages between him and a colleague

Although Willis did not send a message about the female colleague, he was still required to attend a disciplinary meeting. He was involved by reading the messages and responding to them with a smiley face.

‘Just because I was involved, read the messages and probably just responded with smiling faces, I still had to face disciplinary action at my work.

‘There were no disciplinary measures taken against me, because they took into account that I was 17 and a student at the time. I am very grateful for that.’

He advised employees to use WhatsApp or iMessage if they wanted to criticize a colleague, instead of other work-related communication platforms.

Australians shared similar stories to Willis, with many claiming they had been caught using their company’s communications channel to talk about colleagues.

“Our entire admin team (including myself) was fired for having group calls on Skype for Business,” one person said.

“Someone at my sister’s office got fired after going through their work email and finding out they were having an affair with another woman in the office,” added a second.

A third joked: ‘If my employer reads my Microsoft Teams messages, I will actually be fired.’

A fourth person added: ‘I love working in tech. This was one of the assignments I was most looking forward to because we got to know all the juicy details about our clients/customers.’

Others advised employees who wanted to vent their frustrations about office life or colleagues to save it “for the pub,” either in person or by phone, so there would be no written record of the conversation.

Willis explained that he and his colleague were messaging through the company’s Skype Business account (stock image). By law, employers are allowed to access private work messages

In Australia, the Workplace Surveillance Act (2005) provides that employers are legally allowed to read their employees’ private messages.

The law requires an employer to provide at least 14 days’ notice before surveillance begins.

The notification must specify in detail the type of surveillance involved (camera surveillance or work notifications), how it is carried out, when it starts and whether it is for a fixed period or ongoing.

Employers have the legal right to monitor their employees’ private messages.

A company’s IT policy should include more information about how employee communications are monitored.