It isn’t surprising that more and more companies are keeping a hawk’s eye on their employees’ social media activities. In the light of cyberbullying, sexual harassment over texts (comedian Utsav Chakraborty‘s case) and in comments, corporates are making sure employees engaging in deviant behaviour online are not hired, or immediately fired. One such case that serves as example is from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS).
A TCS employee from Kolkata, named Rahul Singh, has been sacked by the company for sending explicitly violent rape and death threats to two women on social media.
According to Economic Times, to one of the women, Singh threatened that he would kill her husband and son and then rape her, To another 19-year-old woman from Assam, he verbally abused and threatened. She then filed a complaint with the Kolkata police.
The complainant told the police that the media that Singh sent her these messages after reading one of her posts that criticised the government.
Screenshots of the chat went viral on social media, prompting Singh to delete his social media accounts.
A spokesperson from TCS told the media that Singh had been fired.
“At TCS we have zero tolerance towards any act which goes against our core values. The employee has been relieved with immediate effect.”
Only a couple of months ago, Tech Mahindra had sacked their chief diversity office, Richa Gautam, after a former employee shared screenshots on Twitter of a mail and alleged homophobic treatment.
It is indeed a positive sign to see companies take these grievances seriously, as opposed to turning a blind eye to their employees’ misbeheviours. Drastic and swift actions like these may, to some extent, deter people from resorting to such behaviour.