Every once in a while, the internet tragically reminds us that our work places are not as private as we think they are. And isn’t that just lovely? Recently, TikTok user Natalie (aka @natnooner) shared a story of how she — and her entire team — were fired over their work chats.
Natalie jumped on a trend to tell her story
She stitched another creator’s TikTok about workplace chats to drop a bombshell: “This exact thing happened to me back in 2019 when they fired the whole admin team — myself included.”
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Firing an entire team is an extreme measure. So, what happened?
Her job wasn’t exactly fun
Pre-Covid, she was working at a place that was struggling a lot with employment. Their team were very understaffed and morale was low.
On top of that, they were being micromanaged, which anyone who has experienced that will tell you is one of the most infuriating things ever. She said it was a really “wank” place to work. Yes, she’s English.
The only outlet they had was their work chat
“We’d always chat to each other using Skype for Business, and we’d just chat generally about how [expletive] the day was. And if we ever talked about managers, we’d use their first initial. PSA, they still know who you’re talking about.”
Man, rule 1 of being online: never use real names, and never talk crap in the work-provided chat platform. Come on, guys!
They made a seemingly innocuous group chat for a departing colleague
The purpose of it was literally just to chat before their co-worker left the company later that week. According to Natalie, they’d all had a really hard week, and the chat quickly turned inappropriate for work.
They started playing “Would you rather”
This can’t end well. “It was stuff like ‘would you rather put a cactus up your flower and go for a bike ride, or work [where we were working]’. Of course you can guess what most people chose.” The cactus. They chose the cactus. YIKES.
The games got more risqué
“We also somehow started playing ‘snog, marry, avoid,’ and would be between Shrek, Stuart Little, or someone we work with,” she said.
I feel like it goes without saying that this is an absolutely atrocious idea.
Things spiraled quickly
The following week, she and a coworker were questioned about their excessive Skype use. When their manager told them they would look at the transcripts of that specific group chat, she knew she was cooked.
However, a month passed with no word from the management
“And then one day, my colleague gets plucked from a seat at work, pulled into a meeting. Half an hour later, the manager comes and gets his stuff and leaves. And he doesn’t come back.”
She knew what was coming
“We’re freaking out and I get called in, and on the table is a whole stack of papers with our whole conversation from that week printed out. My manager proceeds to read the whole conversation out to me in full and asks me to comment on everything.”
That included her clarifying that she would snog Shrek, for the record.
She said it was the most “humiliating” experience of her life
“Moral of the story is don’t write anything on your work laptop, phones, messages that you wouldn’t want your manager to see.”
That is a very good moral, let me tell you. Feel free to watch her whole TikTok right here, as well as part 2! And remember: they are always watching, y’all.
