When being rude to IT can get you fired

Australian education institution the Asia Pacific International College fired a course co-ordinator for sending abusive emails to the college's IT team after just seven months in the job.

On Friday, the Fair Work Commission issued its ruling in an unfair dismissal case brought by the APIC employee.

According to APIC, the course co-ordinator had been let go for acting inappropriately and disrespectfully towards other members of the college, including sending abusive emails to the IT team.

He told one particular IT worker - in an email copying in number of others - that the IT systems were "crap for people in Melbourne".

"I’m used to extensive testing to very specific testplans to confirm the functionality of a system. Could somebody do the job properly?" the co-ordinator wrote.

In a separate email, the employee copied in senior management to complain about the IT team's performance. APIC said it had previously advised the employee to be careful with his expectations due to the IT team's current workload.

"OK. I’ll tell the students that it was a dream. Everything is perfect and they shouldn’t be upset. .. Anybody want to volunteer to apologise to the affected students? I’m fed up of fielding IT related issues from students," he wrote.

"You may tell me that it’s wonderful but I know different. I want a report acknowledging issues, identifying causes and solutions.”

The employee was warned not to publicly condemn the work of others by the college's principal Dr Ali Jaafari, and told that other staff had made complaints about his "abusive" behaviour.

The employee labelled the charges "childish".

"I suggest you get staff that can do their job instead of defending them," the sacked employee wrote.

Despite finding that the employee's attitude was inappropriate and disrespectful, Fair Work Commissioner Julius Roe ultimately found the course co-ordinator was unfairly dismissed as he was not given a chance to defend himself against the allegations.

He received four weeks pay, less 33 percent based on his misconduct.