If you insult your boss in your WhatsApp group and he ends up finding out, it is not a reason for dismissal

What we say in private can end up taking its toll on us. We live in a connected world and in the end everything ends up working out. Even if we are talking on WhatsApp, if there are coworkers in the group, those messages can end up directly in front of the boss. On many occasions we are not clear how far our messages will go. A line between the secret and the public that can end up getting us fired. Fortunately, judges are there to determine the timely impact of our actions.

Private WhatsApps with insults that are leaked to the boss. The case that we can learn from today comes from the Superior Court of Justice of the Balearic Islands. It is about the dismissal of seven workers from the company Agrupación Express SL who in a private WhatsApp group among 14 co-workers sent insults to the boss, who was not in that group.

The insults are very diverse and direct, from “pig” to “retarded”, through “disgusting rat” or “idiot”, in addition to a long etcetera. At one point one of her colleagues decides to leak those messages and ends up causing her to decide to fire them.

They force the employer to readmit them. Initially, the Social Court No. 3 of Palma de Mallorca sentenced the employer to reinstate the seven workers under the same previous conditions or pay compensation of up to 6,914 euros. It was appealed and now the higher court has ruled that the dismissal was unfair.

The secretaries already had a previous dispute with the businessman and the situation was tense. Once the businessman learned of the insults, he proceeded to fire them. The interesting thing about the case is to reflect on the role and relevance of these insults in the WhatsApp group.

Private context vs work context. Criticizing the boss can be done freely, as long as it is done with respect. This was determined by the Strasbourg Court. However, this is not the debate in the case of the seven workers, since their insults were direct and without any constructive criticism.

The judge highlights that the insults are not serious enough and that when expressed in a private setting they do not justify dismissal. Although there were co-workers and they were carried out with “work tension”, they were not expressed publicly or within the work environment.

On the one hand we have the right to freedom of expression of workers in their private communications and on the other hand the direct impact on the work environment. The judge chooses to defend the first.

Without a tip there are no insults. The complexity of the legal debate centers on the value as evidence for the dismissal of these insults. If there had not been a tip-off from one of the workers, the employer would never have found out. The court points out that even though she was a member of the group, the worker was not entitled to filter those insults, much less be used by the employer to fire the rest.

According to describes Confilegal, the Superior Court of the Balearic Islands states that it was a “closed” communication channel with an “expectation of secrecy.” And regarding the result, the court understands that those insults were what finally caused the dismissal. The reason that triggered the dismissal, no matter how much there was prior discomfort. By eliminating the insults from the equation, the court understands that the dismissal would not have occurred and therefore declares it inadmissible.

The importance of understanding the role of each WhatsApp group. “The insistence on the closed nature of the group, and the reasonable expectation of privacy of everything that is said by the participants, are a fundamental legal element for the Chamber,” points out the lawyer Eduardo Rojo.

We are facing a new case where Justice decides to give more weight to where and with whom than to what itself. The fact that these messages were sent in a private group, even though they were between co-workers, is more relevant than the severity of the insults.

Serve as a reminder to everyone that we must value and understand the area where we say things. A family group is not the same as a WhatsApp group among close friends, as a closed group, as a mixed group, as a group of professional colleagues, as a group created by the boss, as a group of workers where you talk to yourself. work… context matters. And although all WhatsApp groups seem the same, they are not the same before Justice.

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