Hum…

Difficult one, this, because I can see both sides of the argument.

An admin worker who was fired after accidentally calling a customer ‘a t***’ in an email has won more than £5,000 in an unfair dismissal claim.

Meliesha Jones accidentally hit ‘reply’ to an email instead of ‘forward’, an employment tribunal heard.

The 31-year-old had been trying to organise for a colleague at the curtain company where she worked to re-arrange a customer visit when she messaged to say ‘he’s a t*** so it doesn’t matter if you can’t’.

Okay, I get it. Anyone could make that mistake and let’s be honest here, who hasn’t referred to a difficult customer as a twat or worse? And, following the story, twat seems pretty mild, frankly.

However, from the business’ perspective, emailing your customer and telling them your honest opinion can be bad for business.

Would I have sacked her? I cannot say for certain that I would.

Despite offering to pay the customers £500 herself to resolve the complaint, she was eventually sacked by bosses as the couple threatened to leave bad reviews of the business on Trustpilot.

Ah, the old ‘I’ll leave a bad review’ gambit. This tends to swing my sympathy towards the hapless employee. It does appear as if she was an accurate judge of character. Even if you do wish to leave an honest poor review, using it as a negotiating lever, is a poor show and I wouldn’t be blackmailed in this way. Me being me, I’d tell them to leave the review and then respond pointing out that the assessment by the employee was unfortunate, but an accurate description of the client. People generally look favourably on a business that sticks up for itself when faced with this kind of behaviour – and as a general rule people don’t much like twats. So, yes, I’d probably take that risk, but I’m bloody minded.

In June 2023, a customer who had made ‘repeated complaints’ emailed about his order and had tried to get a full refund of the cost of his curtains.

It was heard Ms Jones felt the customer had previously been ‘rude’ to her on the phone.

Having asked to change the time of his upcoming appointment, she had intended to forward the email to installation manager Karl Gibbons with a comment, which said: ‘Hi Karl – Can you change this… he’s a t*** so it doesn’t matter if you can’t’.

However, instead of clicking ‘forward’, she accidentally clicked ‘reply’, so the email was sent to the customer.

Shortly afterwards, the wife of the customer rang the office and upon learning it was Ms Jones who had answered, asked: ‘Is there any reason why you called my husband a t***?’

Presumably because he had behaved like one? Anyone who has worked in retail or the service sector will have come across entitled behaviour from people who cannot differentiate between customer service and servant.

After her boss Jacqueline Smith arrived and apologised again for her conduct, the customer’s wife asked how she was going to be compensated…

Of course.

When she threatened to go to the press and social media…

Of course. It appears that it isn’t just the husband who is a twat here. Frankly, the apology and swift resolution of the problem should have been an end to the matter. Maybe, just maybe a bit off the curtains as a sweetener, but no more than that. It was, after all, a genuine mistake. And here I take the part of the employer – I would not expect employees to be referring to customers as twats in emails, precisely because this kind of thing can happen – even if they think it and even if they are right. Anyway, the tribunal found in favour of the employee.

At her disciplinary hearing the following Monday, she was dismissed and an email was later sent to the customer’s wife informing her of the outcome ‘following the disgraceful email that was sent to your husband in error’.

Ouch! This absolutely should not have been shared with the customer. Nothing more than ‘this matter has been dealt with internally’ should have been sent. It would appear that the customers aren’t the only twats in this little story.

‘The disciplinary process and the dismissal were a sham designed to placate the customer,’ she added.

‘I find that they acted unreasonably,’ she continued.

‘[Ms Jones] dismissal was unfair.

‘The mistaken addressee was a genuine error, and one which is often made.’

Ms Jones was awarded loss of earnings in the period, which eventually totalled £5,484.74.

On balance, a decent outcome. No extra for hurty feelz. Just loss of earnings and a slap on the wrist for the employer who really didn’t handle the situation at all well. Oh, and the customers were a pair of twats.