An Employer Has No Business In This Dispute

What business does an employer have involving themselves in a private dispute between an employee and other people, when that dispute is unrelated to their employment?

None, but Monash University seems to believe otherwise.

Monash University employee Tanya Heti told Charlotte Dawson to “go hang yourself” via Twitter. A bit over the top and excessively aggressive, particularly since it was the first communication between the two, but not sent by any Monash University media and therefore nothing to do with the university.

I suspect Tanya Heti’s tweet was provoked by (NZ born) Charlotte Dawson’s recent comments to New Zealand’s Herald on Sunday that:

"New Zealand is small, nasty and vindictive. It's a tiny, little village ... a tiny country at the end of the earth"

This is not a concerted campaign of continual harassment; it is partly a bitch with a chip on her shoulder and nothing better to do saying something nasty, but also a New Zealander defending New Zealand, so Charlotte Dawson is being a tad precious and in my opinion, not entirely honest in trying to push this incident under the umbrella of the anti bullying campaign.

Saying something nasty to someone you don’t like is not a crime and not grounds for termination of employment. Nor is responding to:

My fiancé hanged himself HOW DARE YOU SAY THAT TO ANOTHER HUMAN BEING

with

If I was your fiancé I'd hang myself too

Since when did Australia become such a nanny state that nasty retorts should be banned?

Someone being an arsehole can be upsetting, but it should not be a crime or even a tort, unless it becomes a campaign of continued harassment.

Charlotte Dawson is not averse to being a bitch herself.

One day, I watched about 15 minutes of Australia’s Next Top Model, because someone else was watching it and it was their house. A contestant, Cassie Van Den Dungen was telling the judging panel that she wasn’t sure about her commitment to modeling because she had a boyfriend.

“Ditch the boyfriend”, replied role model Charlotte, giving Cassie the benefit of her own successful love life.

Cassie Van Den Dungen and her boyfriend are still together, by the way. They have even had a child.

It appears from the linked article that Charlotte Dawson looked up Tanya Heti online, found her business contact details, rang her to remonstrate and was essentially told to fuck off. It seems the only way she knew Tanya Heti was an employee of Monash University was by actively searching. Tanya Heti did not represent herself as such during the exchange of tweets.

So what did Charlotte Dawson do?

Rang Tanya Heti’s employer and tried to get her into trouble at work over a personal dispute only related to the university because Charlotte Dawson had actively searched and drawn this connection herself.

You absolute cunt of a bitch. You’re every bit as bad as Tanya Heti. I doubt the world would be poorer if you both hung yourselves.

What if Tanya Heti had walked up to Charlotte Dawson in the street and told her what she thought of her and her comments about New Zealand? Suppose then another person recognized her and told Charlotte Dawson where she worked. Does that make it the employer’s business?

No, it doesn’t.

Monash University stated that it “encourages lawful freedom of expression”. Clearly it does not. There is nothing unlawful in telling someone publicly that you hate them or that they are a waste of space or even that the world would be better without them in it. Nor should there ever be. If you support freedom of speech, you need to support speech with which you don’t agree, as long as it is not defamatory or harassment, the latter requiring a continuing set of actions, not merely a derogatory exchange.

Finally, how about the title of the person Charlotte Dawson rang: Pro Vice Chancellor for Social Inclusion? Monash is by no means the only Australian university to create this position.

What a load of mealy mouthed, namby pamby, hand wringing, wet left crap.

We must ensure no-one who wants to go to university is excluded. Yes, of course, what a great idea … let lots of dumb people into uni, then water down the courses so they can pass them. That ought to help both our national technological development and our education export earnings.