Workers warned to watch what they say on work chats after employee almost fired

A man has cautioned workers to be careful when messaging colleagues on work communication platforms after he revealed he was almost dismissed after having a laugh with a workmate on a Skype business account.

UK influencer Owen Willis said in a TikTok video that he went through the eye-opening experience when he was 17 years old, and had not yet become accustom to the “rules of corporate”.

“This is your reminder that messages sent on corporate platforms can and will be read by your employer,” Willis, who is now in his early 20s, said.

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He explained that he and another colleague would regularly have a “laugh and a chat” through messages sent on a Skype for business account, including discussing work and non-work related topics.

“We’d talk about everyone, like if someone annoyed me I’d be like ‘guess what this person’s done’, and I’d put it in my Skype for business.”

Willis said he had “no idea” the messages he was sending could be accessed and read by the head of his team, as well as his employer’s HR managers — and then they were.

“Obviously, we swore a lot in the messages, so I’m guessing that somehow got flagged,” he said.

Explaining in the now viral video, Willis said his colleague began messaging him about a female colleague’s outfit choices, which included a T-shirt and “Thailand elephant trousers”, while the rest of the office was expected to dress “smart”.

“I never said anything bad about her,” Willis clarified.

“But my colleague, who I would message all the time, used to talk about it every day.”

His colleague was “caught” over the messages and was fired: “(They) never came back to work”.

Willis, however, was required to attend a disciplinary meeting but survived the incident.

“There was no disciplinary action on my behalf, because they took the fact that I was 17 and an apprentice at the time, which I’m very thankful for.”

He cautioned people wanting to discuss work with a colleague to do so over iMessage or WhatsApp, rather than using a work messaging system.

“How do I delete my Teams chat,” one person commented on the video.

“Our whole admin team (me included) got fired for having group chats on Skype for business,” said another.

Another said they “love working in tech” because “this was one of the requests I used to look forward to the most, as we got to find out all the juicy drama about our clients/customers”.

In Australia, it may be reasonable for an employer to monitor some activities to ensure staff are doing their work and using resources appropriately, according to the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Information Commissioner.

For those in NSW, the Workplace Surveillance Act 2005, says surveillance of an employee’s computer use can only be carried out where there is an existing policy in the workplace, and only if that work place has provided notice to the employee, who is aware of and understands the policy, in advance.