Unfriending A Co-Worker On Facebook Now Constitutes Workplace Bullying

The Fair Work Commission found that unfriending someone can show "a lack of emotional maturity."

A workplace tribunal has found that unfriending a co-worker on Facebook can constitute workplace bullying.

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The decision came during a workplace bullying trial involving Tasmanian real estate company View.

Rachael Roberts, who worked at View for three years, reported the real estate firm's owner, James Bird, and his wife, Lisa, to the Australian Fair Work Commission in February for 18 alleged examples of workplace bullying.

Roberts' complaints included her work being deliberately unprocessed for nine days, her properties not being shown in the business's front window, and not being allowed to answer the phone while the owner's wife, a sales administrator, was at work.

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One of the alleged incidents involved Mrs Bird calling Roberts a "naughty little schoolgirl running to the teacher" after Roberts called Mr Bird to ask why her properties had not been displayed at the front of the office.

But it was Lisa Bird's Facebook unfriending of Roberts that has garnered the most attention.

A judge ruled that the unfriending was a result of Mrs Bird's "provocative and disobliging" behaviour.

"I am of the view that Mrs Bird took the first opportunity to draw a line under the relationship with Ms Roberts on 29 January 2015, when she removed her as a friend on Facebook as she did not like Ms Roberts and would prefer not to have to deal with her," deputy president Nicole Wells said.

The Fair Work Commission eventually ruled that nine of Roberts's 18 claims were upheld – including the Facebook unfriending.