British man Troy Garrod fired by text message for ‘liking’ a picture of a jumper

A BRITISH man has been taught to think before he clicks after he was fired from his job for casually liking a co-worker’s Facebook photo.

Troy Garrod, 27, was shocked to discover the British wholesaler he had worked at for four years, Bertram Books, sacked him three days after he hit the ‘like’ button on a bizarre photo of a jumper with wolves printed on the fabric, The Mirror reports.

And to add insult to injury, the Englishman was delivered the sour news via text message.

Mr Garrod had thought nothing of his ‘like’, which 70 other people had already done, believing he was just joining in some harmless banter.

The image, snapped inside one of the company’s warehouses, was uploaded by a female ex-colleague with a caption that mocked the jumper: “OMG I’m f--king crying ... I’m sure there’s a wolf fleece appreciation page pahahaha”.

Mr Garrod was told by his employer that he “bullied” the jumper’s owner by ‘liking’ the “inappropriate” photo.

But he insists he did not really understand what the picture was about — let alone who owned the sweater.

Mr Garrod said he felt “hurt and angry” and said his former co-workers believed the response by the firm was “ridiculous”.

“I didn’t know what the photo meant but everyone else who worked there was liking it so I just joined in. When I received the text saying I’d been sacked I couldn’t believe it,” he said.

Resemblance ... This image found on Facebook’s The Wolf Fleece Appreciation Society captures a similar jumper to the one Mr Garrod ‘liked’. Picture: Facebook

“Being sacked by text and email is not right after four-and-a-half years of hard work.

“It just seems so unfair that clicking the ‘like’ button has caused me so much trouble.”

Bertram Books were able to boot Mr Garrod because his legal rights changed when just two months ago his contract changed from fulltime to one drawn up by a recruitment agency, despite him continuing in the same role.

There have been a string of cases of people being fired for their actions on social media, including the SBS journalists sacked over the anti-Anzac tweets, themarketing professional booted after posting an image of his colleague’s toddler and the PR executive terminated for her comment on Africa and AIDS.

Mr Garrod wants to warn others to keep their professional and social lives separate.

“Sadly I think people being sacked like this will become much more common.

I want to warn people to keep work and social divided on Facebook — be careful about befriending colleagues.”