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Did it happen to you to visit your Facebook profile and have fun there while at work? You are not alone. In Greece, however, the fans of the million people worldwide favourite social network should think several times before looking at their page "just for a while," because it could cost them their work.

At least this shows the order of the District Court in Athens, which ruled that, constant surfing the social networks could affect the harmony in the employees-employers relations.

Here's what happened: A former employee of an airline company filed a claim against her recent employers to compensate her for her dismissal. According to the court order, the "sin" of the employee was that she visited her Facebook profile every day and while at work. Therefore, the court ruled that the decision for dismissal without compensation is entirely legal.

The management of the airline assessed that the behaviour of the employee violated the terms of the employment contract having in mind that an email was sent to all employees still in December 2008, prohibiting them to visit the social networks on the Internet. Despite the ban, however, the particular employee continued to "enter" Facebook, and sometimes even told customers to call back later with the explanation that the airline tickets booking system was out of order temporarily and she was unable to serve them. According to the court, she, in fact, wanted to have more time for fun on the Internet.

The woman was permanently appointed at the airline company in 1989 and her duties included booking of seats and issuance of airline tickets. In May 2009, however, the manager of the airline company sent her a letter, blaming her for not performing her duties properly. According to the arguments of the management, the employee was consistently late for work and used the company phones for private conversations while at work. But her most serious mistake was that instead of working, she spent hours on Facebook and similar sites every day. At the end of the letter, the manager warned that if the employee continued to behave the same way he would be forced to terminate her employment contract without further notice.

Instead of improving herself, the employee responded to the manager by e-mail and invited him to justify in writing his letter, which she defined as "excessive, humiliating, insulting and maligning." She even added that if this did not happen she would take the letter of the manager as "an act of retribution" against her previous response regarding the increases in the salaries of the company’s employees.
 
The manager responded to the employee in writing that her action showed once again her unprofessional attitude which the manager defined as detrimental to the interests of the company and informed her that he terminated her employment contract. The employee turned to the court to require compensation, but it also ruled that the dismissal was lawful and was due to a major reason for the company.

And if you are not quite sure after what you have read that you do not have to surf Facebook while at work, here are some ways to "hide" yourself. At first, you could "lock" your profile so that only your friends could see what you do and write while at work. Also, you could group your contacts and restrict the access of your colleagues to your account. Making a second, closed profile which will be not available to your colleagues is the third option. If you do not want the moderators of the corporate network to see that you are on Facebook or if the access to the site is restricted, you could use some of the special proxy sites, which overcome such restrictions. You could also access the Internet through your home connection using the remote desk connection to easily access the social networks. If all the methods proposed above fail, you could use the 3G internet connection card and surf from your mobile phone.

The story of the employee at the airline company may be a precedent for Greece, but it is something common abroad. A teacher in New Jersey was deprived of her professional rights for a specified period of time after she had published insulting comments about her students in her profile. She called some of them "future criminals" and said that she felt like a "jailer" during the classes. A colleague of hers from another state was dismissed after uploading photos of her drinking alcohol. The parents of the pupils informed the school director, who required her dismissal.

According to the article in the Ta Nea newspaper, the photos uploaded on Facebook could cause other troubles. A woman from Canada, who was absent from work because she suffered from depression, lost her financial aid because the insurance company found her photos on Facebook, showing her having fun. A company employee informed her that the photos of hers in bars, on holiday and on her birthday published in the social network proved that she no longer suffered from depression. And this despite the prescriptions of her doctor who told the woman to go out and have fun.

The most typical case in Greece so far remains this of a general secretary of a ministry, who was removed from office only 24 hours after the appointment, because until the last moment before his appointment the employee was using on the Internet "vulgar, offensive and extreme definitions for the government, to which now he wants to serve, taking a very responsible post."