Back in February I wrote about @Cellla_ and @Robertwaple – a girl (Cellla) who sent out a tweet about the job she was about to start, and the pizza restaurant manager (Robert) who sacked her before she even started.
At the time I called it a Lose Lose in 140 Characters or less.
Now that the dust has had time to settle it felt like the right time to go back and see what the aftermath looked like – and it’s interesting.
@Robertwaple still isn’t using twitter. He deleted the original post the day it happened when he realised that the Genie was out of the bottle. He’s been silent ever since. The account is still there. He has 2,753 followers and doesn’t have a single published tweet. It would appear that once bitten, twice shy.
@Cellla_ on the other hand has fared differently. We should recall that she had almost 3,000 followers at the time and had published some 65,400 tweets. Clearly she enjoyed twitter – and at the time was clearly enjoying the publicity that has been sparked by the viral nature of her story.
Today the account has 5 followers and not a single published tweet. We can only assume that the original Cellla deleted her account and that someone else – probably innocently – grabbed the handle.
So why would Cellla delete her account? Again we must assume that it was simply more than she could handle. Either because of the trolls and abuse she was getting for her attutude – or because it was something she simply couldn’t carry around with her. If she was trying to get another job it may have proven difficult if future empoyers check you out on social media (and they will).
It is a message for all of us.
Don’t put anything online that you would not be happy for your boss, girlfriend, mother, best friend, neighbour, pastor or indeed anyone, to read. Would you be OK with your comment being broadcast on the evening news along with your picture? If this makes you stop for more than just a second, don’t hit the send button.
The internet doesn’t forget. You can delete everything and it will not go away. The future will see a complete industry built around cleaning people’s historical faux pas. A Google search for @Cellla_ brings up results about the story on Time, Buzzfeed, USA Today and hundreds more sites across the world.
I hope Cellla_ is working. In a job she finds satisfying. And I hope she has learned a lesson. Possibly I hope for too much.
