Waterstones come out as GC and fire TRA for social media post

She got herself fired with her own stupid words, Boohoo.

I think it's the last straw.

I'm wondering if she is trying to taunt Waterstones to comment which might boost her appeal and tribunal.

People don't get sacked this quickly and don't get sacked when on sick leave or holiday without a lot of previous issues meaning this is the last straw.

I'd be interested to hear Waterstones' version of this. It's highly unlikely that she was sacked at the behest of one author - more likely someone from HR/Legal thinking, well, that JKR libel Buckaroo horse has to trigger some time...

@Redshoeblueshoe I hadn’t seen that bit. Maybe she was on sick leave for something else? Then got covid. Went on holiday anyway? Idk.

She’s not having a good week. The view was lovely though.

I am going from what someone else said about sick leave. I can’t verify it and edited to make that clear. But it irritated me that she said she had Covid two days before her holiday and posted the evening on the 4th saying she was upset and got sympathy from the replies. It was implied she wasn’t going on holiday. But she posted she had travelled and was in another country by the 7th.

zibzabara she had tweeted that she was on holiday, but on sick leave

Tinysox - wouldn't it be hilarious if that was why she was actually sacked. Waterstone's can't say anything. Anyway I'm sure she will have no trouble getting another job

I don't think she should have been fired for having batshit views - I'm fine with living, working and shopping alongside people who have views very different than my own. But as others have said, that doesn't seem to have been the case here, as it was the "rip up books" post that led to the sacking, and it's reasonable for a bookshop to object to an employee posting this.

I do hope Waterstones went through proper procedures. Even people with batshit views and an even more batshit social media presence deserve proper, fair procedures when it comes to their employment rights.

How do you know she was on sick leave?

Being on sick leave (I haven’t seen this so don’t know if it’s verified) whilst posting a rather lovely view on holiday would get me sacked. Maybe this is another reason?

Oh cross posted with redshoeblueshoe

@TheCadoganArms being autistic, could you please clarify if you’re joking? Cause most of me thinks you are but there’s a large bit that’s actually worried… 🤦🏻‍♀️

From Tilly’s posting she said she had got Covid two nights before she went travelling to a different country on holiday so I don’t think she’s that great a role model.

Someone up thread said she got sacked whilst on holiday, well she had actually posted she was in the alps, whilst on sick leave.
I expect she was sacked for gross misconduct, by bringing the firm into disrepute.
So zero point in her complaining about unfair dismissal.

The demand for purity is at the root. She considers herself morally pure, perhaps, and doesn't see why others can't meet her standards.

Silly git. It's impossible.

Maybe she cant enjoy this pizza unless it's made by organically fed real Italians, with pure Italian ingredients and cooked in an authentic pizza oven? I'm pretty certain the answer is she'll eat pizza from her favourite place without questioning where they source their flour....

Does she refuse to wear clothing unless it's handwoven cotton from India, dyed with natural plant colours and stitched on a vintage hand crank machine whilst chickens cluck in the background? I bet she doesn't. I bet she buys clothes where she wants, same as the rest of us.

So why do authors have to be "pure"?

I'd chuck a few quid in if she was crowdfunding. Fair's fair.

yeah she should totally crowd fund a tribunal if she thinks Waterstones have a case to answer.

I confess that I give away good novels, but if I feel a novel is badly written and is a waste of time and effort and is a damp squib at the end, I put them in the recycling to spare other people the bother.

Too bloody right 🥳

To be honest I don’t think ‘Tilly loves books’ after all. My mum is an avid reader and yes there are some books she doesn’t enjoy but I don’t ever recall her putting them in the bin. She passes them on to others, donates them etc etc. Disagree with authors views, criticise their writing style or content all you want but destroying them is not what people who love books do. If I were Waterstones I wouldn’t want Tilly representing the main product I sell.

Halle bloody lujah Waterstones back in my good books - pwahahaha

She can try, I'll even donate to a crowd funder.

But I think she will fall down in the supposed to be selling books thing. Not tearing them up and putting them in the bin thing.

I think Tilly will have to happy finding an activist book retailer to work for . I doubt that they will be happy in a work place where books by many people more abhorrent than the author they were trying to shame are being sold.

Tilly has not shown that they cannot be a grown up about interacting with authors that Tilly disagrees with.

Does she have a case for taking them to tribunal for discriminating against her philosophical beliefs? Since it was just a social media post and she didn't actually destroy any of her employer's property, that we know of.