Boss uses Facebook to catch skiving worker

Kyle Doyle, 21, is currently facing an internal investigation after he called in sick for work then updated his Facebook status bar to read: 'Kyle Doyle is not going to work ... I'm still trashed. SICKIE WOO!'.

Unfortunately for Doyle his boss was also a friend on Facebook and saw the incriminating status report.

He emailed Doyle and requested a doctor's note to prove that a sick day was required, without mentioning the Facebook entry but saying that his line manager was under the impression that the day off was not for medical reasons.

"My leave was due to medical reasons, so you cannot deny leave based on a line manager's discretion, with no proof, please process leave as requested," Doyle replied.

The manager then revealed that he had seen the Facebook message and said the day off would not be granted. "HAHAHA LMAO epic fail. No worries man," was Doyle’s response.

However, the emails between the two soon started to be circulated around corporate email systems and then worldwide. Doyle now faces an investigation by his employer AAPT, Australia's third largest telecoms operator.

"It's unfortunate because it was in the public domain,'' an AAPT spokeswoman told the Australian newspaper The Daily Telegraph.

"It involves one of our employees and we're doing an internal investigation, but I can't comment any further because of the nature of what it's about.

The case highlights the increasing use of social networking sites by management. Interviewers and head hunters are checking out user profiles of applicants, and managers are using them to keep updated on employees.