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Secretaries Sacked After Flamewar at Work 644

ross.w writes "Two legal secretaries in Sydney have been sacked after a flamewar over a ham sandwich got circulated throughout the cities financial district. The insults about figures, boyfriends and jobs flew thick and fast and ultimately resulted in the dismissal of both of them for mis-use of the email system."
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Secretaries Sacked After Flamewar at Work

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  • Hearsay (Score:5, Funny)

    by fembots ( 753724 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:22PM (#13506390) Homepage
    The spokesman said he still did not know whether or not Ms Nugent's lunch was stolen.

    Rumor has it that Nugent's lunch was stolen by her ex-boyfriend who is now with Bird.

    Warning: Do not pass this on.

    Regardless, the person who forwarded these emails to external parties should be fired because company emails shouldn't be forwarded to unintended recipients without original author's consent.
    • Re:Hearsay (Score:4, Informative)

      by Nan0c ( 114572 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:38PM (#13506503)
      All bad really however you look at it. Link to email extract http://www.dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story/0,2028 1,16522876-5001022,00.html [news.com.au]
      • by DF5JT ( 589002 ) <slashdot@bloatware.de> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @07:50AM (#13508273) Homepage
        Whatever happened to a sane style of communicating with people over e-mail?

        I remember times where people actually quoted relevant material from previous mails, trimmed down unnecessary garbage and answered questions *below* the question itself.

        These days you need to sift through millions of lines of excessive "Original Message" quoting without any reference to the actual contents of previous messages. Sucky line breaks, HTML-crap, incoherent writing and idiotic bitmap smileys have made e-mail communication a Pain In The Ass, but certainly not an effective means of getting things done in a coherent fashion.

        Thank god there are some lonely islands in usenet with old-fashioned people who take the three seconds to trim down excessive quoting, who put answers *after* the questions and who know how to use an editor to get a message across.

        One of these days I am going to start a company that uses a newsserver as its main means of internal communication and I'll fire everyone who doesn't play by the rules of old style usenet posting.
        • by Thuktun ( 221615 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @09:05AM (#13508984) Journal
          I remember times where people actually quoted relevant material from previous mails, trimmed down unnecessary garbage and answered questions *below* the question itself.

          In business politics, someone can get added to the thread after the fact or get the mail forwarded to them, and the presence of a message history greatly aids in their understanding. This is really a work-around for poor tools and processes.
        • by Doc_NH ( 898298 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @09:30AM (#13509188)
          I bet top posters drive you crazy. :o)


          Whatever happened to a sane style of communicating with people over e-mail? I remember times where people actually quoted relevant material from previous mails, trimmed down unnecessary garbage and answered questions *below* the question itself. These days you need to sift through millions of lines of excessive "Original Message" quoting without any reference to the actual contents of previous messages. Sucky line breaks, HTML-crap, incoherent writing and idiotic bitmap smileys have made e-mail communication a Pain In The Ass, but certainly not an effective means of getting things done in a coherent fashion. Thank god there are some lonely islands in usenet with old-fashioned people who take the three seconds to trim down excessive quoting, who put answers *after* the questions and who know how to use an editor to get a message across. One of these days I am going to start a company that uses a newsserver as its main means of internal communication and I'll fire everyone who doesn't play by the rules of old style usenet posting.
          • by robertjw ( 728654 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @10:25AM (#13509685) Homepage
            I bet top posters drive you crazy. :o)

            You know what's interesting? I have friends that I have attempted to email the way the GP described and they emailed me backup complaining that they couldn't figure out what I was talking about. Now I just top post - seems to be more readable to the average user.
            • by C0deM0nkey ( 203681 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @10:49AM (#13509914)
              seems to be more readable to the average user

              Only because the average user has been *trained* by bad messaging habits to read email that way.

              Top-posting is fine (it annoys me, but its tolerable) if you are engaged in a single-threaded, IM-style conversation where you only have to answer one question at a time. When someone asks multiple, unrelated questions in a single email or touches on multiple topics that cannot all be dealt with in a single response, top-posting falls flat on its face.

              The division on this issue seems to be squarely along business users and technical users. Most technical users have been trained in Usenet-style posting: trimmed messages, clear annotation, appropriate response. Business users have been trained by Microsoft - fire and forget.

              • Only because the average user has been *trained* by bad messaging habits to read email that way.

                Actually, I don't believe the people I am referring to were 'trained' at all. My experience has been in my personal correspondance with friends and family - most of their experience with computers is limited to browsing the web and using Yahoo mail, not sure we can blame Microsoft.

                Top-posting is fine (it annoys me, but its tolerable) if you are engaged in a single-threaded, IM-style conversation where you
                • I don't believe the people I am referring to were 'trained' at all.

                  Well...they were not formally trained. They were trained by the user interface and came to expect that all user interfaces would be similar or they just flat out don't care. In either case, a de facto standard was born. The question now becomes who set that de facto standard: Microsoft with 90%+ of the desktop market (my vote) or web mail (which probably tried to emulate the desktop because it was already familiar to the user and/or desi

                  • by robertjw ( 728654 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @02:04PM (#13511951) Homepage
                    ...are really engaged in a conversation that can most easily be "overheard" by a newcomer if written in a conversational style. Two people corresponding via manuscript are (usually) just providing information to one another.

                    I think you hit the nail on the head here. The real difference is the audience. If you and I are corresponding one-on-one we can probably keep track of the conversation even if top-posting is ues. If we are corresponding in a public forum (slashdot, usenet, whatever), mailing list or just CCing in multiple people on a technical or business issue Usenet style replies are much easier for outsiders to follow.
        • On top vs. below (Score:4, Insightful)

          by aclarke ( 307017 ) <spam AT clarke DOT ca> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @11:08AM (#13510077) Homepage
          Hmm, I dunno. I've been using email for, ohh, 14 or so years now so I'm hardly a newcomer to the concept. I think it makes a lot more sense to reply to a message at the top. After all, that's where you start when you read. Why not have the most recent message there instead of having to scroll to the bottom, only to find that the latest response was long and you need to scroll back up again? No thanks.

          At least one of my friends tries to make this a Unix versus Microsoft Windows holy war, but I set my mail client to reply at the top no matter which one I'm using, because it makes sense to me and apparently to almost everyone else who uses email too.

          Sometimes people have ideas and improve how things are done. Just because it's new and different doesn't mean it's worse. I think this is one of those occasions.

          OK thanks I'm done now ;-)

          • by clarkcox3 ( 194009 ) <slashdot@clarkcox.com> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:32PM (#13510857) Homepage

            I believe that the rationale is that when reading a long, top-posted conversation, everything is in a jumbled, psuedo-reverse order:

            Answer 4
            > Answer 3
            > Question 4
            >>Answer 2
            >>Question 3
            >>>Answer 1
            >>>Question 2
            >>>>Question 1

            While, when reading a bottom-posted conversation, everything reads in the correct order, where the answer to a particular question appears directly after said question. (i.e. like a transcript of a real conversation):

            >>>>Question 1
            >>> Answer 1
            >>> Question 2
            >> Answer 2
            >> Question 3
            > Answer 3
            > Question 4
            Answer 4
    • by rakslice ( 90330 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:53AM (#13506816) Homepage Journal
      >Regardless, the person who forwarded these emails to external parties should be fired because company emails shouldn't be forwarded to unintended recipients without original author's consent.

      Why? Was that in the company's acceptable use policy (AUP)? NO?

      Many companies have yet to effectively leverage the online employee comportment solutions that are available in the idea marketplace. In the online world, synergies for mitigation of "water cooler" discussions can be harnessed LIKE NEVER BEFORE!

      Does your company's AUP need dusting off? Is the disused lavatory that houses the locked Employee Manual filing cabinet just not recieving the foot traffic it deserves because the door is missing its 'Beware of the Leopard' sign? ACT NOW!

      Check out some of the quality AUP elements that are at work on my own personal mailbox sender storage space use policy:

      - Senders must grant unlimited reproduction, modification, and distrubution of their message contents

      - Senders agree to have all AUP-related feedback handled by the on-line erectile disfunction medication retailer that I've received the most spam from this week (currently instant-pharmacy.net, in case you're interested)

      Remember: It's quality outsourcing possibilities like these that let me keep my service levels up! Imagine how dissappointed I would be if my customer service workload made me LOSE OUT on the EXCELLENT FREE KARMA available by forwarding little Johnny's request for postcards out to 20 of my BESTEST FRIENDS (who judging by my inbox contents are all direct e-mail marketers)! Now that would just be plain sad.

      (Apologies to the late Mr. Adams for blatant fair use of the leopard bit.)

      -aT
      • by timmarhy ( 659436 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @02:02AM (#13507090)
        "Regardless, the person who forwarded these emails to external parties should be fired because company emails shouldn't be forwarded to unintended recipients without original author's consent." i don't believe those tags on emails cut the legal mustard anyway, since you have no opertunity to view said contract before accepting the email. quite frankly, if you send me an email, then i'll do what i want with it and anyone who doesn't like it can fuck off and not send it in the first place
        • I agree about those tags down the bottom of the email, but I expect a large law firm probably has policies that their employees are expected to follow that would apply to his situation.

          They probably say that email is not to be used for non-work related purposes (Every place Ive worked at has had that one) but as a law firm, I'd imagine they'd need a strict policy about internal correspondance leaving the firms internal network.

          Whoever sent the email to someone outside the office is probably going to get
          • by Rich0 ( 548339 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @06:10AM (#13507839) Homepage
            They probably say that email is not to be used for non-work related purposes (Every place Ive worked at has had that one) but as a law firm, I'd imagine they'd need a strict policy about internal correspondance leaving the firms internal network.

            Even such a clause can be hard to enforce legally if the defence can show that it is not enforced uniformly. That is the danger of broad contract clause. If the defence can show that EVERYBODY violates the contract, then the courts will question the wisdom of enforcing it in any particular case.

            For example, if the windows EULA contained a restriction that said that if you mow your own lawn you agree to give Bill Gates the title to your home, that is technically an agreement to avoid a particular activity. If MS then slectively went after windows copyright violators using this clause it would be likely to be found unenforceable, since it is being used selectively.

            The fact is that most companies do in fact tolerate personal use of email despite wording to the contrary in the AUP. If the defence can show that many others send personal emails, and that their managers are aware of this activity, then the court may be likely to question why they are being singled out. Otherwise a company who wants to get rid of all its over-40 employees could just do an audit and fire just these employees for sending personal emails.

            Many companies as a result have AUPs that specifically allow personal use of email within certain bounds. A court is more likely to uphold such an AUP if the bounds sound reasonable and has in fact been violated (such as running a personal business on company time, or sending bulk mail or many large emails, or excessive use of company time). Additionally, if an employee is excessively using time at work for personal business it is likely that their performance will suffer and that is clearly cause for termination.
    • Regardless, the person who forwarded these emails to external parties should be fired because company emails shouldn't be forwarded to unintended recipients without original author's consent.

      The entire concept of considering all emails at work "business communications" is ridiculous. You ever say something personal to the person in the cubicle next door? Yeah? You ever use your PBX to talk to the person down the hall? Email is just the modern way of doing that.

      Now, granted, they shouldn't have got in a
  • Ouch (Score:5, Insightful)

    by boola-boola ( 586978 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:22PM (#13506392)
    That's exactly why you use personal email for personal things...
    • Re:Ouch (Score:4, Insightful)

      by mr_tenor ( 310787 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:28PM (#13506429)
      Maybe that's what the guy in the article who said "Email is a business tool, not a personal messaging system" meant, but that particular sentence is totally false. Email is a set of network protocols that can be used for whatever. What is acceptable usage needs to be explicitly defined in company policy.
      • Re:Ouch (Score:3, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        Our boss is also a business tool.
      • Re:Ouch (Score:5, Funny)

        by Spock the Baptist ( 455355 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @07:57AM (#13508334) Journal
        E-mail is a tool of repression wield by self-perpetuating yankee running dog autocrats to repress proletariat peasants. The yankee running dogs have propagandized you into believing that we're an autonomous anarcho-syndicalist collective. Outdated imperialist dogma has perpetuated the social and economic differences of the proletariat and conceal that we're living in a dictatorship.

        Wait...

        Ooooh! Dennis! There's some lovely filth down here ...
    • Re:Ouch (Score:4, Funny)

      by John Seminal ( 698722 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:36PM (#13506483) Journal
      That's exactly why you use personal email for personal things...

      I agree!

      Now flame me if you must, but what happened to the good old days when the secretary was there to bring the boss a cup of coffee, and take his dry cleaning to the chinese place? You know... two wongs can make it white.

      Work is not the place for women to be women. Work is the place for women to kiss ass.

      Having said that, if I owned an internet porn company, I would try and hire the two of them for some hot firey angry lesbian action. Give them both a whiffle ball bat, tell them there are no rules- hit as hard as you can. because the looser is getting the wiffle ball bat in her ass. Give the winner $1000 and pay their rent for a month while they find a new job. Pay the loser nothing and put her picture on a billboard with the wiffleball bat hanging out her snatch.

      Welcome to corporate warfare.

    • Re:Ouch (Score:5, Funny)

      by MooseByte ( 751829 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:41PM (#13506515)

      "That's exactly why you use personal email for personal things..."

      Though sometimes the upfront and personal approach is best. For example:

      "Well, I gotta tell you - I'd be very, very careful who you talk to about that, because the person who stole that sandwich... is dangerous. And this button-down, Oxford-cloth psycho might just snap and then stalk from office to office with an Armilite AR-10 carbine gas-powered semiautomatic weapon: pumping round after round into colleagues and coworkers. This might be someone you've known for years . . . someone very, very close to you."

    • Re:Ouch (Score:3, Insightful)

      Give me a fucking break. This was a major overreaction by the asshats these women worked for. I'm sure these women have friends still inside the company and they WILL quietly find a way to make the company pay many times over for what was done to their friends. Believe it.
      • Re:Ouch (Score:5, Insightful)

        by randyest ( 589159 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:07AM (#13506633) Homepage
        Did you read the actual emails [smh.com.au] or just the summary? They sound like nasty little harpies who probably annoyed half the staff.

        Sometimes management (and staff) is just waiting for the office bitches (male or female) to violate a policy so they can fire the annoying bickerers.

        Or it could be overreaction, but I have a hard time believing a really valuable employee who is otherwise well-liked, hard-working, and useful would get fired for this.
      • Re:Ouch (Score:5, Interesting)

        by child_of_mercy ( 168861 ) <johnboy@nOSPAM.the-riotact.com> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @03:01AM (#13507255) Homepage
        Allens are a big 5 law firm in Australia, they are so far up themselves they can see their own tonsils (and I used to work for a different big fiver).

        Having said that this won't stand up a minute in an industrial court unless there is a long and documented history of abuse and counselling.

        So they'll either get a huge payout or be back real soon.

        Everyone's a winner except the precious partners of the firm and they won't notice the spare change.
    • Re:Ouch (Score:3, Interesting)

      by the_wesman ( 106427 )
      yes, personal e-mail should be used for personal business but.... I have to ask - does this stray the line? according to the rule we've both agreed on (personal e-mail/personal business) and the assumption that her lunch is considered personal business (despite the fact that she is allow to keep it in her "official company refrigerator" - as opposed to the "personal refrigerator" for her "personal lunch") she _should_ have... found out the "personal" e-mail address of all of the 'colleagues' to whom she wan
    • Re:Ouch (Score:3, Insightful)

      by fm6 ( 162816 )
      That's just it -- this wasn't a "personal thing". It was a shouting match between two co-workers over nothing. It's proof that both persons are immature and don't understand proper workplace behavior. Giving "misuse of the mail system" as ground for terminating them was just an excuse. Any competant manager who found out about such a silly feud would want both participants gone.

      Also, switching to an outside mail system would require exactly the kind of foresight flame warriors never show. If they were abl

  • Amazing (Score:5, Insightful)

    by dtfinch ( 661405 ) * on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:24PM (#13506399) Journal
    That must have been quite a flame war to be reported on dozens of news sites and finally Slashdot. I hope nobody was killed over it.

    Though they were fired over email, I doubt this is material worthy of the "Your Rights Online" section. They were both in the same office, cursing each other during work hours, except via email rather than verbally. Then they forwarded the emails to the rest of the office to get everyone involved, rather than working like their supposed to.
    • I know. I woke up to read it on the inside of the front page of the paper! I read it thinking "OK so one of them shot the other or something?" I scoff at the fact that it's put up the front of a serious newspaper and then a bit later it's put up on slashdot!

      Who the hell cares about a couple of bitchy secretaries having an email fight? Reading it isn't even funny.

      The worst thing about this story will be tomorrow when it's posted up on slashdot again. I don't want to hear about this constantly for
    • When someone performs this behavior online, they get banned, most of the time when you're talking about web blogs (not news groups ;). It seems fitting that engaging in this behavior results in similar circumstances in the real world as well.

      Are we living in a more beligerent society these days? I know it's off-topic slightly but it's a side note worth mentioning.
    • Re:Amazing (Score:5, Funny)

      by PsychicX ( 866028 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:32PM (#13506455)
      Just thank god it wasn't an emacs sandwich with vim in between. The fires would burn until the end of time *shudder*.
    • Re:Amazing (Score:5, Informative)

      by kngthdn ( 820601 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:40PM (#13506512)
      I agree, this is pretty stupid. The whole exchange of emails is here:

      http://radar.smh.com.au/archives/2005/09/cutting_a _lawye.html [smh.com.au]
  • Foward your email (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Neil Blender ( 555885 ) <neilblender@gmail.com> on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:25PM (#13506404)
    I have all my email forwarded to a gmail account. If I get something personal that I wouldn't want anyone to know about or something sketchy at work, I reply from gmail.
  • From TA (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Sheetrock ( 152993 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:26PM (#13506411) Homepage Journal
    Email is a business tool, not a personal messaging system - the use of it in this case was not in any way acceptable, nor is that the way we expect people to treat their work colleagues

    Maybe the economy would be a little better if businesses would focus on business instead of finding new and interesting ways of scanning and banning personal Internet use (or a dozen other irrelevant employee-control functions that cost money and time without producing product...)

    • Re:From TA (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Tim C ( 15259 )
      If I was involved in a stand up shouting match with a colleague in the middle of the office, I'd expect to have some explaining to do.

      Why should the email equivalent be any different?

      This isn't about monitoring of email anyway, if you'd read even the summary(!) you'd have seen that this was a very public affair, with the emails ending up being forwarded all over the city. Most companies take a rather dim view of their employees publicly behaving like truculent children.
  • OMGLOL (Score:5, Funny)

    by BlackMesaLabs ( 893043 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:27PM (#13506421)
    BANNED!!! OLOLO
  • by s7726 ( 742427 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:29PM (#13506431)
    Are either of them hot, or possibly both of them?

    That would make my day (night)
  • Sorry. (Score:5, Funny)

    by jaromanda ( 852776 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:31PM (#13506449)
    While cleaning the nineteenth floor, I noticed the fridge had been left open. Naturally I threw out all the spoiled contents. I hope I didn't cause too much trouble.
  • Stuff like this... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by ShatteredDream ( 636520 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:31PM (#13506453) Homepage
    Really reinforces why my girlfriend and the other women in my life prefer a male-dominated office to a female-dominated office. Hell, my mom won't work for another woman again unless either she knows her well or hell freezes over thanks to the last time...
    • by weighn ( 578357 ) <weighn@g m a i l . com> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @01:12AM (#13506893) Homepage
      My 1st long term employment was one of 3 men amongst about 50 women in a Library and (possibly because I was only 19 at the time) it was fantastic!

      Now, 15 years older, I find myself in a male only IT dept and long for: 1. that old work envrionment, 2. the knowledge of the "fairer-sex" that I have gained in the 15 years since, and 3. To be 19 again!

  • This is how National Lampoon would classify it (in it's "true section on the level")...
  • Aight (Score:5, Funny)

    by ReformedExCon ( 897248 ) <reformed.excon@gmail.com> on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:33PM (#13506461)
    I put on my robe and wizard hat.
  • Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:34PM (#13506472)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by tktk ( 540564 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:58PM (#13506599)
      That's nothing...try a married couple sending angry IM's at each other while in their apartment.

      The worse part was that the husband told me about it over IM during their fight. And the wife got even more pissed since she heard him typing...but not to her. I heard later that their argument basically started all over again because of the extra IM to me.

      Obviously a geek couple.

      • Once, before the Internet was common, I was doing tech support for a small startup. The founder had given me permission to have, and examine the source code as needed. One day, while the chief programmer was chewing me out over the phone for doing exactly that, I was composing a fax to my boss telling him exactly what was going on. The programmer, who knew nothing except brute force and ignorance, was not amused, but shut up after the boss reamed him out for it.
      • by mcrbids ( 148650 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @01:51AM (#13507049) Journal
        That's nothing...try a married couple sending angry IM's at each other while in their apartment.

        My wife and I have been together for > 10 years. A long time. But there have been a few times where we were so enraged with each other, that verbal communication broke down.

        In these very few cases, it has helped tremendously to be able to write out all our thoughts out and send them via e-mail back and forth. The somewhat impersonal touch afforded by email lets tempers cool, and lets the shouting-match argument fall back into being a reasonable debate.

        I remember twice this happening - once when my wife was upstairs and me downstairs on the porch, and another time we were in the same room, and were openly polite to each other, both agreeing not to talk about it until we both agreed we were ready to, stepping in and out of the seat where the computer was in our bedroom.

        It was really quite effective!
        • Moving the conversation to written form followed by conversation is how the marriage encounter program works. They place further constraints on things by pushing you to only write about your feelings and do so in the form of a love letter but once you give up on that bit (Neither my wife nor I could cope) you end up with a great tool for diffusing conflict.

          Another use of the technique is to try it out with non-conflict related topics to stir up feelings and inspire conversations. It sounds dumb, but if you
      • That's nothing...try a married couple sending angry IM's at each other while in their apartment.

        Reminds me of a tale about a deaf couple arguing. They were signing to each other, and the woman was signing something when the man shut his eyes.

        Apparently, the woman tried to prise his eyes open in an effort to get him to see what she was saying...
  • Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by circletimessquare ( 444983 ) <circletimessquar ... il.com minus cat> on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:37PM (#13506494) Homepage Journal
    News from Fark. Stuff that doesn't matter.
  • Does anyone have a copy of this transaction? I'm looking for some good humor tonight, and this just might fit the bill. :)
  • Incidentely (Score:3, Informative)

    by strider44 ( 650833 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:43PM (#13506527)
    Since this stupid story was just inside at the front of the paper today, I might as well transcribe the transcript for you all...

    Katrina Nugent
    Yesterday I put my lunch in the fridge on Level 19 which included a packet of ham, some cheese slices and two slices of bread which was going to be for my lunch today.
    Over night it has gone missing and as I have no spare money to buy another lunch today, I would appreciate being reimbursed for it.

    Melinda Bird
    Katrina, There are items fitting your exact description in the level 20 fridge. Are you sure you didn't place your lunch in the wrong fridge yesterday?

    Katrina Nugent
    Melinda, probably best you don't reply to all next time, would be annoyed to the lawyers.
    The kitchen was not doing dinner last night, so obviously someone has helped themselves to my lunch. Really sweet of you to investigate for me!

    Melinda Bird
    Katrina, since I used to be a float and am still on the level 19 email list I couldn't help but receive your rediculous email - lucky me!
    You use our kitchen all the time for some unknown reason and I saw the items you mentioned in the fridge so naturally thought you may have placed them in the wrong fridge.
    Thanks I know I'm sweet but I only had your best interests at heart. Now as you would say, "BYE"!

    Katrina Nugent
    I'm not blonde!!!

    Melinda Bird
    Being a brunette doesn't mean you're smart though!

    Katrina Nugent
    I definitely wouldn't trade places with you for "the world"!

    Melinda Bird
    I wouldn't trade places with you for the world...I don't want your figure!

    Katrina Nugent
    Let's not get person (sic) "Miss Can't Keep A Boyfriend".
    I am in a happy relationship, have a beautiful apartment, brand new car, high pay job...say no more!!

    Melinda Bird
    Oh my God I'm laughing! happy relationship (you have been with so many guys), beautiful apartment (so what), brand new care (me too), high pay job (I earn more)....say plenty more.....
    I have 5 guys at the moment!
    haha.
    • I definitely wouldn't trade places with you for "the world"!

      She should be fired just for that misuse of quotation marks.

      • by fucksl4shd0t ( 630000 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:13AM (#13506659) Homepage Journal
        They were both obviously fired because they were both so completely incompetent they couldn't even conduct a proper flame war.

        Now, if I was in this flame war (and if I was a woman), it would read more like this:

        Me: You stupid bitch, I ate your sandwich. I thought it would save a few pounds off your fat ass and I hadn't eaten in two days.

        Her: At least I'm not blonde!

        Me: Your pussy hairs don't lie you little slut.

        Her: What?!

        Me: That's right. I got pictures. When my dog was licking you in your "sweet spot", and your pussy hairs are blonde alright!

        Her: Well, at least I have one!

        Me: One what? One brain cell? One ovary? One tit? You're so fat...blahblah

        Get the idea?

        I don't know what's worse, being incompetent, or getting fired over a lame flame war.

    • by mrchaotica ( 681592 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:16AM (#13506674)
      Not only is that the lamest, most pitiful flamewar I've ever seen, but shouldn't legal secretaries, of all people, use good grammar?! Even people on Slashdot are more literate!
      • by GrahamCox ( 741991 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:32AM (#13506729) Homepage
        Even people on Slashdot are more literate

        No they're not. Let's not get carried away... ;-)
      • by lawpoop ( 604919 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @12:36AM (#13506742) Homepage Journal
        Forget grammar, what about common internet abbreviations?

        " Melinda Bird: Oh my God I'm laughing! "

        Melinda Bird: OMG LOL!

        • by GuavaBerry ( 50743 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @05:08AM (#13507630)
          To make even more sense of it, run it through everyone's favorite AOLer translation script:



          KATRINA NUG3NT
          YESTERDAY I PUT MAH LUNCH IN TEH FRIDGA ON LAVEL 19 WHICH INCLUD3D A PAKAT OF HM SOME CHESE SLIECS AND TWO SLIECS OF BR3AD WHICH WAS GONG 2 B FOR MAH LUNCH 2DAY
          OVER1!111 OMG NIGHT IT HAS GONA MISNG AND AS I HAEV NO R MONEY 2 BUY ANOTHER LUNCH 2DAY I WUD APRECIAET BNG REIMBURSED FOR IT

          M3LINDA1!!1 OMG WTF LOL BIRD
          KATRINA THEYRE R IETMS FITNG UR 3XACT DESCRIPTION IN TEH L3VEL 20 FRIDG3!!11 OMG WTF LOL R U SUR3 U DIDNT PLAEC UR LUNCH IN TEH WRONG FRIDG3 YEST3RDAY

          KATRINA?!?!!??? OMG WTF LOL NUG3NT
          MELINDA PROBABLY BST U DONT REPLY 2 AL NEXT TIEM WUD B ANOYED 2 TEH DA!1!!! WTF KITCHEN WAS NOT DONG DIN3R LAST NIGHT SO OBVIOUSLY SOMAONE HAS HELP3D THEMSELVES 2 MAH LUNCH1!!1 OMG LOL RILLY SWET OF U 2 INV3STIGAET FOR MA

          M3LINDA!!1!1 LOL BIRD
          KATRINA SINCA I US3D 2 B A FLOAT AND M STIL ON DA LEVEL 19 3MALE LIST I CUDNT HELP BUT RAC3IEV UR R3DICULOUS EMALE - LUKY U!!!111! WTF LOL USA OUR KITCHAN AL DA TIEM FOR SOM3 UNKNOWN RAASON AND I SAW TEH IETMS U MENTION3D IN TEH FRIDG3 SO NATURALY THOUGHT U MAY HAEV PLAECD THEM IN TEH WRONG THX111111 LOL I KNOW IMM SWET BUT I ONLY HAD UR BST INTAR3STS AT HEART1111! OMG NOW AS U WUD SAY BYE

          KATRINA1!11! WTF LOL NUGANT
          IMM NOT BLONDE!

          MELINDA!1!11!!!!1!!!1!!!!! OMG WTF LOL BIRD
          BNG A BRUNETA DOASNT MEAN UR SMART THOUGH

          KATRINA1!!1! OMG NUGENT
          I D3FINIETLY WUDNT TRAED PLAECS WIT U FOR DA WORLD

          MELINDA!!11!1 OMG WTF BIRD
          I WUDNT TRAED PLAECS WIT U FOR DA WORLD.I1!!111!111!!! LOL DONT WANT UR FIGUR3

          KATRINA111!!1!! WTF NUGENT
          LETS NOT GAT PERSON (SIC) MIS CANT KEP A BOYFREIND
          IM IN A HAPY RELATIONSHIP HAEV A BAUTIFUL APARTMANT BRAND NU CAR HIGH PAY JOB.SAY11!!!11!1!!11111111 LOL NO MORA!

          MELINDA!1!111!!!1 WTF OMG IMM LAUGHNG!1!11 LOL HAPY RALATIONSHIP U HAEV BEN WIT SO MANY GUYS) BAUTIFUL APARTMENT (SO WUT BRAND NU R (M3 2) HIGH PAY JOB (I EARN MOR3)..SAY!!111!!!!11!1!!1!!1!!1!! WTF PL3NTY MORE..
          I11111!!111!!1!11!111!!1!!1!111 LOL HAEV 5 GUYS AT TEH MOMANT
          HAHA!11!!! WTF
      • mediocrity-r-us.au (Score:3, Insightful)

        by toby ( 759 ) *
        Yep - That's the Australia I remember.
  • Its stories like this that dare me to troll. I literally thought that I was reading an Onion spoof...

    Its even worse that this is presented as "big news", when the true banality of this revelation is oft-repeated throughout the world every day, without the use of anything "high tech" as *email* :

    "Two Co-Workers Get in Office Scrap. Both Now Neither Co nor Worker."
    "Senior Accountant Fired After Overheard Making Fun of Boss at Office Party"
    "Sales Engineer Canned For Slander After Voicemail of Superviso


  • I knew a better link [news.com.au] was sure to be found. And dammit, now I'm hungry...

  • the ensuing " Two Linux Engineers were fired for having a public kde-gnome e-mail flamewar"..

    I still wonder why it has never happens over the years?
  • OK, who is going to post the text of the flamewar?
  • Lost opportunity (Score:3, Interesting)

    by macemoneta ( 154740 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:55PM (#13506584) Homepage
    The company could have used this as a viral marketing tool to their advantage - or sold it to some entertainment company (new reality show, with an email component?). It clearly caught the interest and attention of many people.
  • by Madd Scientist ( 894040 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:57PM (#13506594)
    does anyone else realize that the only reason this is news is because some schmoe was searching online for "katrina" and came across this pointless story?
  • brilliant (Score:3, Funny)

    by colton cummings ( 887877 ) on Wednesday September 07, 2005 @11:59PM (#13506603)
    Someone is going to find the sandwhich in some refrigerator, and it's going to be great.
  • by MegaFur ( 79453 ) <wyrd0&komy,zzn,com> on Thursday September 08, 2005 @01:35AM (#13506994) Journal
    Maybe the real reason they got fired was that they were behaving like children, and the abuse of the email system thing was just a convenient excuse.
  • Slow learners (Score:4, Insightful)

    by beforewisdom ( 729725 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @06:16AM (#13507850)
    One of the oldest email etiquette lessons around has been not to get into pissing contests over email. It is descended from an even more ancient rule before the era of tech "be careful what you put in writing".

    It would be tempting to call these secretary's slow learners, but I can remember reading a slashdot article about men in an IT company plotting to take other personnel ( and customers ) with them to form their own breakaway company. They used company blackberries for these communications!

    So, it isn't about being tech savvy, it is about common sense or the lack of it.

  • Unfair? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by beforewisdom ( 729725 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @06:26AM (#13507890)
    The secretaries were in the wrong, they got fired.

    However, other people in the company, lawyers, were the ones who passed the email exchange onto people outside of the firm.

    If you ask me they have equal responsibility in embarrassing the company and should get an equal penalty.

    If they haven't my guess would be because they are more valuable to the company or the company is like most in being cowardly and does not want to risk firing lawyers.

    These guys ( in addition to the secretarys ) should be ashamed of themselves.
  • As a manger... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Thursday September 08, 2005 @09:09AM (#13509025) Journal
    As usual, there is probably a LOT more to the story.

    As a manager, such a tepid 'flamewar' hardly rates my attention, much less the actual FIRING of two full time employees. Please. People have personalities, and they won't always be a wonderful happy always-loving bonded group of soulmates. Sometimes they'll fight, sometimes they'll fight over really, really STUPID things.

    But to fire them?

    I'd have them both in my office, show them the now-public email, and discuss with them the appropriate use of email and work time. Maybe I'd make a little issue over the embarrassment to the company of the public email. It probably wouldn't hurt to remind them that company emails are monitored, and theirs in particular would be up for scrutiny.

    I'd also make a departmental or, (if I was high enough in the management) companywide point about the forwarding of obviously personal emails of others. I agree with the posters here that the schmuck that forwarded it 'out' is also a bit culpable.

    But FIRING them? That's overreacting entirely, IMO.
    • Re:As a manger... (Score:3, Informative)

      by aXis100 ( 690904 )
      I think there's more to this than you realise.

      Australia has pretty strict laws around "unfair dismissal", making it tough for employers to sack someone for just being bad at their job, unsociable, personality clash etc.

      Chances are there was other motives, and this was just a good formal excuse.

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