Fired for all CAPS

ALL CAPS emails lead to woman's firing

Mon Aug 31, 2009 11:04PM EDT

WHAT COULD BE MORE ANNOYING THAN THIS? MAYBE IF IT WAS BOLD? AND RED?

OK, I can't actually make that text red due to the publishing system I'm on, but it would certainly be annoying, wouldn't it?

And if you worked for New Zealand's ProCare Health, it could even get you fired.

That's exactly what hapened to Vicki Walker, who was abruptly kicked out of her job for sending "confrontational emails" with text formatted in a variety of red, bold, and all caps fonts. Walker had sent the emails to fellow workers within the company, usually with stern and detailed instructions on how forms should be properly filled out.

Someone at ProCare didn't like her approach, suggesting she caused "disharmony in the workplace" and was being too confrontational via email, eventually firing her without warning.

Walker, however, got the last laugh. She sued for wrongful termination and won the case, pocketing $17,000 in lost wages and for other unspecified harm caused due to the firing.

OH MY. Did Ms. Walker who used all caps learn her lesson? Or, did she go to another job where people FLAME (use all caps) all the time?

Is using all caps more annoying than typing everything in lower case? Is it more annoying than people like me who write long sentences and are punctuationally challenged?

I hope you have a flame free day. However, if you decide to start FLAMING and then sue your company remember I gave you the idea and share the profits with me.

Tomorrow: My sweet husband and I celebrate 15 years of marriage. Yes, he is an incredibly patient man. Watch for the blog on how we met. Ahh, for cute!