Ranting about Pokémon Go, staff fired for "rude behaviour" on Facebook

While some may think it is fair for a boss to send memo to staff asking them not to play Pokémon Go, how about firing an employee who complained about not being able to access the game, and then went on to outrage against Singapore?

According to The Straits Times, Australian citizen Sonny Truyen, formerly employed by a Singapore real estate website 99.co, was fired from his marketing job after he called Singapore a “piece of f***ing s*** country” on Facebook for not being one of the countries of launch for Pokémon Go.

When asked by another Facebook user why he referred to Singapore as such the conversation resulted in Truyen saying: "I am Australian [and] here because of lack of the local talent. You have done a great job of supporting my EP, locals can’t even read."

Since then Truyen’s LinkedIn and Facebook profiles have been suspended, reports Marketing magazine.

In a blog post on 99.co's website on Monday, CEO and co-founder Darius Cheung clarified that Truyen was a search engine optimisation (SEO) specialist who had only started consulting with the company for a week before the incident.

"About 24 hours ago, we were alerted by a user that one of our consultants, Sonny Truyen, demonstrated rude behaviour on a Facebook thread," he wrote.

"We are a proud Singaporean company and do not condone such language or behaviour, hence we have since terminated his engagement once the incident came to light," he wrote.

He also made note of the digital response to Truyen's rant: "As you could see in the same forum threads, a reckless act of insult by one individual has provoked the anger of hundreds – not just towards him as an individual, but also inspired categorical attacks on race and nationalities. Simply put, anyone labelled a “Foreign Talent” was heavily criticised. I am sure we all have Australian or Vietnamese friends – how would they feel if they read it?"

"We are better than that," he added.

In an interview with Mashable, Truyen admitted he was wrong.

"It was a d**k move on my behalf and a very big error in judgement to negatively label an entire country over Pokémon. It was very wrong of me to rage like that." he said.

Image: 123RF