A number of Facebook users have been fired in recent years after posting incriminating status updates and photographs on the social networking Web site – including a South African man who was fired last year – but a British teenager has apparently become the first person in the UK to be fired via a message on the site.

Sixteen-year old Chelsea Taylor found out that she had lost her part-time Saturday job at the Cookies Café – also known as the Lancashire Tea Room – in Leigh, Greater Manchester, when she logged into her Facebook account and saw a message from the café’s manager, Elaine Sutton, informing her that she was being dismissed from her £3.55 an hour, 10am – 4pm job.

The short note, which was riddled with spelling, punctuation and grammar errors and signed with two kisses at the end, informed the teenager that she was being fired for losing a £10 note while running an errand to buy biscuits for the café’s staff.

The message reads: “hiya Chelsea its Elaine from work. sorry to send u a message like this but bin tryin to ring u but getting no joy. I had to tell the owner bout u losin that tenner coz obviously the till was down at end of day. she wasn’t very pleased at all and despite me trying to persuade her otherwise she said I have to let u go. I’m really sorry. if u call in the week with your uniform i’ll sort your wages out. Once again I’m really sorry but it’s out of my hands. Elaine xx”

Chelsea’s mother, Nicola, is furious about how her daughter was let go. “To sack a young worker via Facebook is appalling and heartless – and the way it was written was dreadful. I just can’t believe they didn’t even have the decency to tell her over the phone, let alone in person. And to have the message all misspelt with capital letters and apostrophes missing is simply disrespectful and sets no example to other employees.”

Nicola told the Daily Mail newspaper that it was an even bigger blow because they had been upfront about Chelsea losing the money and even offered to repay it, only to be assured that it was all fine.

Chelsea says even receiving a text message informing her that she was sacked would have been better than finding out on Facebook. “She didn’t have the guts to tell me face-to-face.”

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