A manager fires an employee for sending a text message without "smiling faces"

An Australian cafe worker has won a wrongful dismissal case after being fired for texting her daughter without a smiley emoji.

Kristen Gordon has been a supervisor at Sens Coffee in Queensland, Australia for about 14 months.

The café is owned by Sens Catering Group, which also operates two other cafés.

The task force ruled in Gordon's favour, finding that manager Phoebe Wang had arbitrarily fired the employee after outraging over the tone of her text messages.

The week before her dismissal, Gordon revealed to her manager Wang that she was undergoing IVF and could not work certain days or complete certain tasks due to the procedures.

However, Wang asserted that Gordon was "arguing with her" and "since there were no emojis, she meant what she was saying to be rude."

Over the objections of the recruiter, who said this was Gordon's texting style, the enraged manager ordered her staff to fire Gordon immediately, as she was fired the next day.

According to a task force investigation, Gordon's letter so incensed Wang that she "smashed her phone by throwing it on the table" and "jumped up and down screaming".

"Shoot her now!! Hire another supervisor. I don't care about the cost, do it now!" Wang said angrily to another store manager.

Ultimately, the task force ordered Sens Catering to pay Gordon A$5,357 ($3,618) plus 9.5% of that amount paid into her designated pension fund.

It should be noted that most cases of unfair dismissal in Australia are won by employers, not workers.

According to data from the Labor Committee, less than 1% of all claims filed between October and December 2018 resulted in a formal judgment against the employer.

Restaurants are still understaffed worldwide due to low wages, long working hours, lack of benefits, difficult customers, desire for a new career and potential exposure to coronavirus, all of which have prompted employees to leave the industry.

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