Beep, Beep - Ur Fired"

A high-street store sacked one of its employees by SMS last week, and defended the action saying that SMS was part of youth culture and people should not be surprised by it being used in that way. Katy Tanner, 21 worked for the Blue Banana high street chain which employs young adults and targets the youth market for its clothing and body piercing products.

Katy was off ill with a migraine headache when she received the text message - "We've reviewed your sales figures and they're not up to the level we need, as a result we will not require your services any more. Thank you for your time with us."

Store manager, Alex Bartlett defended his decision to sack the part-time employee of eight weeks, saying "We are a youth business and our staff are all part of the youth culture."

Katy however feels that the company is being hypocritical as it wont let staff SMS a message in when taking time off ill - demanding that they make a phone call.

The website of the retailer has a discussion forum which is full of messages expressing outrage at the method of dismissal - http://www.bluebanna.com/?p=readforum&id=7"

Posted to the site on 7th August 2006