Issue date: 11/10/08 Section: Editorial/Opinion

Social networking - convenient, time consuming and … dangerous?

Just ask the recently fired staff members of Virgin Atlantic.

According to an Oct. 31 Reuters UK article, the airline fired 13 cabin crew staff for an inappropriate Facebook discussion.

Was it harsh? Yes. Was it necessary? Absolutely.

This is an old topic. We continually hear about how commentary or images on Facebook, or other similar Web sites, have ruined someone's career chances or caused problems in their lives. What I have to say is not new.

However, it keeps happening.

Clearly, we are not learning anything from past mistakes in the world of social networking.

In this case, Virgin Atlantic had every right to fire those employees for a number of reasons.

First of all, staff members of a corporation, regardless of size, are representatives of the organization. Isn't it their job and in their best interest to make the organization look as good as possible?

With their disrespectful commentary, the 13 staff members failed to do that. Instead, they did quite the opposite. While I do not know the exact details, according to the article, the Web discussion has been removed from Facebook, the contents of the discussion were slurs about passengers. Other sources claim the discussion included slurs about airline safety as well.

The mission statement of Virgin Airlines is "To grow a profitable airline where people love to fly and where people love to work."

By insulting the airline, the former employees showed careless disrespect for their jobs and their apparent lack of love for their place of work. Strike one.

Disrespect of passengers should cause a decrease in the number of people who love to fly on that airline. Who wants to fly somewhere where they will be treated with contempt, regardless of the fact that it was supposed to be behind their backs? Strike two.

Fewer passengers mean less profit in the airline business. Strike three. By baseball standards, these people should be out and the airline made no exception.

Virgin Airlines, or any business or organization deserves to have proper representatives who will help them achieve their goals. Despite the severity, this action preserved the corporation's integrity while teaching several invaluable lessons.

If it is not nice, do not say it. However, this is commonly disregarded. So if it is said, do not put it on a social networking Web site where the world is able to view it and judge. There are consequences for everything and more often than not, the consequences may cost more than people are willing to lose.

Also, the actions of the employees were purely careless. Facebook is a social networking site, and the world had access to that discussion. Someone saw it, judged it and reacted. According to the article, the airline began an investigation after complaints from passengers and other staff members.

As I said, I do not know what the exact discussion was about. Whatever the topics were, I do believe that the former employees thought they were joking.

However, what is a joke to one person may be highly offensive to someone else. I completely agree with the passengers and other Virgin Atlantic staff members who reported the discussion. That discussion had no place on Facebook and if it needed to be on there, it should have been private.

In the article, the reporter interviewed the airlines' director of communications, Paul Charles, who said, "There's a time and a place for Facebook. But there's no justification for it to be used as a sounding board for staff of any company to criticize the very passengers who ultimately pay their salaries."

Charles is right. There is no explanation good enough for what they did. If the former employees had one, it was not good enough to save their jobs. This mistake will probably follow them for the rest of their careers as well.

Also, there is a time and place for social networking sites. They can be useful, entertaining and a popular social connection. On the opposite side of the spectrum, they have the potential to be dangerous and the 13 former employees of Virgin Atlantic serves as an example.

One mistake cost them their jobs. The same thing could happen to any one of us, under different circumstances and because of different reasons. Social networking is a great way to reach out to the world - and a great reason to be even more cautious. By being cautious, we may be able to protect ourselves from the airline employees' fates.

Now, 10 days later, the event is becoming history.

As George Santayana once said, "those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

In the brief history of social networking sites, this event has repeated one too many times. Take this opportunity to follow Santayana's advice.

Schossow is a sophomore print journalism major and money/health editor for The Spectator.

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