A former Twitter employee, Gary Rooney, won about $600,000 for unfair dismissal after Twitter assumed he resigned by not responding to Elon Musk’s “hardcore” work email.
The case highlighted the importance of clear communication between employers and employees, especially regarding significant changes in employment terms.
Rooney’s private Slack messages, where he discussed leaving, were used as evidence by Twitter, underscoring that internal communication on platforms like Slack is not always private and can be used in legal disputes.
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Gary Rooney had worked at Twitter for nearly a decade.
He was the director of “source to pay,” a procurement role, in Twitter’s European headquarters in Dublin when Elon Musk acquired the social-media platform for $44 billion in October 2022.
Within weeks of taking over Twitter, Musk sent a now infamous email to the entire workforce asking them to commit to an “extremely hardcore” work schedule or resign.
“This will mean working long hours at high intensity. Only exceptional performance will constitute a passing grade,” the billionaire wrote in the email.
Anyone who didn’t click yes on a link in the email to “be part of the new Twitter” by the next day would receive three months’ severance, the message said.
Rooney fell into that group. But rather than leaving quietly, he brought a case to Ireland’s Workplace Relations Commission, claiming unfair dismissal. He won and was awarded about $600,000.
Recently released documents detailed the commission’s decision, revealing new details about Rooney’s case and Twitter’s human-resources practices under Musk’s direction.
Rooney saw the email but did not respond. Three days later, he received a second email from HR saying it was acknowledging his “decision to resign and accept the voluntary separation offer.”
“At no time have I indicated to Twitter that I am resigning my position,” he replied a week later, according to the report. The company told him that not clicking yes was “treated as you having served notice to resign your employment.” Resignation by omission
It may not seem like common practice to terminate an employee without speaking with them, but no-show resignations aren’t unheard of, said Robyn Hopper, an HR-knowledge advisor at the Society for Human Resource Management.
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Employee handbooks explain when termination may be considered a voluntary resignation. The issue is that many employees tend not to read company policies or handbooks until it’s too late, Stefanie Camfield, the director of HR at Engage PEO, said.
Workers install lighting on an “X” sign atop the downtown San Francisco building that housed what was formally known as Twitter, now rebranded X by owner Elon Musk, Friday, July 28, 2023. Twitter was rebranded as X after Musk took over. Noah Berger/AP Photo
Another factor to be aware of, Camfield said, is that many US companies do not offer a written employment contract to workers and that positions at companies are mostly “at will” — unlike other countries such as Ireland, where Rooney is based and which has stronger protections for the employee
“‘At will’ means an employer or the employee can end the employment relationship for any reason or no reason, so long as it’s not unlawful,” she said.
If anything is disputed, the courts generally place the employee in a position of less strength.
For example, an employer can terminate an employee without notice if they fail to show up for work. It assumes the employee has decided to resign and just hasn’t told it yet, Camfield said. This is known as job abandonment.
How long the employee has depends, but most companies that Camfield works with set a three-day rule. Communication
Camfield said Twitter’s handling of the situation was hampered by unclear communication and informal language.
“The employee wasn’t really given clear terms on the changes to the terms of their employment. They were just told Twitter 2.0 — that’s not clarity,” Camfield said.
“What stood out to me is that there’s a question about whether the statement that was sent to the employee could be construed as the employee resigning by not checking yes,” she added. “There’s not anything that actually evidences that the employee resigned.”
However, she said she thought that the employee could have responded in some manner on the day, even if they did not agree with what was being presented to them.
Ending an employment relationship generally deserves face-to-face or at least personalized conversations, she said. But phone calls are often time-consuming and need to be scheduled. Particularly for a large workforce, it’s just not feasible to individually call all employees.
Hopper pointed out that sometimes HR has their hands tied and is acting on orders from upper management.
“Some employers have a requirement that if an employee is resigning, and it is written as an email or text, they will call an employee to make sure that what was received is legitimate,” she said. “But there is no law that I am aware of that states that an employee or employer cannot use email or other communication.”
Hybrid and remote work have also created a new challenge for HR professionals, particularly with employees spread across regions with different regulations, Hopper said. Your Slack messages aren’t private
The Workplace Relations Commission’s report shows that on the day Rooney received Musk’s email, he messaged a colleague on Slack, saying: “Hey — wanted to let you know im going. I need to step away for my own sake. I’m deeply troubled by whats going on here these days.”
In another message, he wrote: “Iv made the decision not to press the yes button, and wanted to drop in a goodbye here.”
Twitter used these messages and others as evidence that he intended to leave the company. The commission found the Slack messages had “no relevance to the question as to what brought about the termination of the Complainant’s employment.”
Even though Rooney won his case, experts told Business Insider that it should serve as a reminder to all employees about the risks of using internal messaging systems.
New Slack redesign Slack is a great tool for communication in the hybrid world, Stefanie Camfield, the director of HR at Engage PEO, said. Slack
Employers often have the right to monitor and preserve data on Slack. They primarily use it to ensure company policies are being followed, Camfield said, but it can be used however they see fit — including as evidence in a lawsuit, as Twitter did in this case.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing, she added.
“This messaging tends to encourage employees to talk more frequently and more casually,” she said. “And it can lead to inappropriate conversations.”
Slack messages could just as easily be used as evidence in a sexual-harassment case, Camfield added.
The software is still a great tool for keeping teams connected in the age of hybrid work. However, employers need to train employees to understand that company policies extend to Slack and that their information is not private, she said.