Here’s the latest example of how your social media habits could cost you your job.
A waiter in a Dublin restaurant who posted a Snapchat video of himself snorting cocaine has lost his unfair dismissal case.
According to The Irish Times, James Boyle took a video of himself snorting cocaine while wearing a Wagamama t-shirt. Boyle was a waiter at the popular restaurant until his dismissal in 2014.
Ireland’s Employment Appeals Tribunal found that he had been “a good and popular employee”, and that there was “a culture of going out and socialising among the workforce.”
Boyle sent the video to colleagues and friends in August 2014, showing him taking cocaine in a bathroom while wearing a Wagamama t-shirt. While he had admitted sending the video, there was disagreement between Boyle and his employers about whether it had been filmed in the restaurant itself.
He was called to a meeting and told he could resign, and that he would be provided with a reference. The tribunal found that the employer was concerned about Boyle’s use of drugs either inside or outside of the workplace.
The tribunal said that the meeting between Boyle and his employer was not conducted in a proper manner, it accepted the employer’s claim that it was trying to protect its employee, and found in Wagamama’s favour.
