Tuesday, March 30, 2010

FarmVille Addiction Can Get You Canned

You may want to think twice about rushing into 7-11 to buy more FarmVille virtual currency. In what may be the first incident of the Facebook game costing someone their job, a politician in Bulgaria was removed from a city council committee because of sinking excessive amounts of time into FarmVille during meetings.

According to FOX 61 in Tennessee, the councilman – Dimitar Kerin – defended his game play by pointing to the fact his colleagues were also playing, so much so that they had reached a higher level him. Apparently that argument didn’t hold weight with the majority of the counsel though, as Kerin was narrowly voted out by a margin of 20-19.

Kerin was reportedly warned about his behavior several times before his ouster. And while he might be the first FarmVille firing (on record), it points to the broader trend of social media misdeeds leading to problems at work. Last year, a study found that 8 percent of companies had dismissed employees as a result of their actions on social media sites.

Original Article Link