May 24, 2005
Ananova: Football manager sacked by SMS
The manager of a Romanian football team on the verge of promotion was sacked - by text message, reports Ananova.
"Lucian Popa, coach of third division side ASA Targu Mures, was expecting congratulations from the club president. But when he opened the message, he found that he had been fired.
The text said: "As of tomorrow we are giving up on you. Your attitude has been bothering us, and it would be better if we went our separate ways."
Previous "fired by SMS" stories:
-- DONT CUM BAK 2 SKOOL - An exasperated headmaster expelled one of his pupils by sending a text message to the child's mother.
-- Belgian School Principal Fired by SMS - The Principal of a school in Belgium, Saint-Joseph de Presles, was fired by text message last year in June.
-- South Korean credit card firm sacks staff via SMS - South Korea's third-largest credit card issuer, KEB Credit Service Co, sacked a quarter of its workforce (161 employees) via text messages.
-- Thousands are sacked - by text - A UK insurance company fires thousands of employees.
-- Sacked by SMS - An Australian traffic controller is fired by SMS.
The first report of an employee being sacked by SMS I ever read about occured in England, in February 2001, when an office adminstrator, Zoe Halls, received an SMS from her boss, stating: "We don't need you in at work tomorrow, I'll phone you AM to explain - John". Other than calling him a coward, Zoe Halls had little recourse in fighting her case as she was still in a probation period. (cf archived article in The Register).
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