Saturday, August 05, 2006

A 'Youth Culture' Pink Slip

A body-piercing and jewellery shop based in Cardiff, Wales decided to terminate an employee. Because the shop caters to the "youth culture," the management decided to use a "youth culture" method to notify the displaced employee: text messaging.

A company has defended its decision to sack one of its staff by text message...Katy Tanner, a 21-year-old sales assistant, received the message while she was off work with a migraine, the South Wales Echo newspaper said Friday.

The text message said: "We will not require your services anymore...Thank you for your time with us."

"I don't think it's right to just text someone. At least they should have talked to me face to face," Tanner said.

"You're not allowed to text in sick, you have to phone. The fact that they texted me is a bit of double standards."

Several senior staff members at Blue Banana, a body-piercing and jewellery shop based in Cardiff, defended the decision. But company director Jon Taylor added that an internal investigation was underway to see if "the ultimate action was ideal". The retailer claims it tried to reach Tanner directly "five or six times" and passed on a message through her boyfriend before the text was sent.

And store director Ian Besbie added that the dismissal method was fair because texting was a part of "youth culture".

"We are a youth business and our staff are all part of the youth culture that uses SMS (text) messaging as a major means of communication," he said.
We've been notified our services were no longer needed via the telephone, a letter, and in person. And once via proxy (our mother), but we were rather young at the time. Barely alive. Really.

ntodd has a little analysis to go with this story, and a good illustration. Check it out.