Facebook busts call centre 'sickie'

13:14 24th October 2008

A call centre employee in Australia has been caught faking illness after his boss checked his Facebook status.

In news highlighting the increasing use of social networking sites by management, Kevin Doyle is facing an internal investigation after he called in sick for work and then updated his Facebook status to "Kevin Doyle is not going to work, I'm still trashed, SICKIE WOO!".

Unfortunately for Mr Doyle, his boss was a friend on Facebook and saw the status report, and he now faces dismissal by his employer AAPT, Australia's third largest telecoms operator.

The email exchange between the two employees was then circulated around corporate email systems and into press coverage worldwide.

Last month, a poll conducted by the recruitment site careerbuilder.com revealed that one in five employers look at potential applicants' social networking profiles.

In addition, this research found that 34 per cent of those questioned discovered information which led them to no longer consider the individual for that position.