Friending While Sick Costs Job

April 27, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A Swiss insurance worker lost her job after surfing social network site Facebook while off sick.

According to Reuters, the woman had said she could not work in front of a computer as she needed to lie in the dark.

She was subsequently found to be active on Facebook, which insurer Nationale Suisse said in a statement had destroyed its trust in the employee.

However, the unnamed woman told the 20 Minuten daily she had been surfing Facebook in bed on her iPhone. She accused her employer of spying on her and other employees by sending a mysterious friend request which allows access to personal online activity.

“This abuse of trust, rather than the activity on Facebook, led to the ending of the work contract,” insurer Nationale Suisse said in a statement. According to Reuters, Nationale Suisse rejected the accusation of spying and said the employee’s Facebook activity had been stumbled across by a colleague in November, before use of the social network site was blocked in the company.

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