Lucy Skinner, from Liverpool, says she was fired from her customer assistant role at the Co-operative because of uploads on social media in which she called customers ‘Karens’
UNITED KINGDOM | A woman claims she was sacked from her supermarket job without warning for posting videos showing her in work uniform on TikTok.
Lucy Skinner, 24, says she was “shocked” to be fired from her customer assistant role at a Co-operative store in the centre of Liverpool.
She added that she was “angry” it had happened in the middle of a pandemic – and when everyone is “skint” in January.
Lucy, who worked at the store for more than 18 months, claims she didn’t realise filming videos for social media would be a problem.
And she told the Liverpool Echo the worst thing she did was call customers ‘Karens’ – a derogatory term used to describe seemingly entitled people.
A spokesperson for the Co-operative refused to comment on the case but said social media posts can be subject to discipline.
Lucy said: “The Co-operative dismissed me without notice during a pandemic for making TikTok videos.
“So in the month of January when everyone is skint and during the pandemic they decide to tell me and dismiss me straight away without a warning.”
“The TikTok videos were of me wearing a uniform but nobody told me it wasn’t allowed because I see it all the time on the platform, even NHS staff in their uniforms are making videos.
“And every retail company has people making videos with their uniform on.”
Lucy, from Liverpool, claims management were monitoring her page since December 14.
She says was suspended a week before her dismissal but received the news that she was losing her job on January 19.
She said: “It’s effectively immediately dismissed without notice.
“I just feel more angry really because I had no idea that it was coming and it was such a shock for me, especially during the pandemic in the month when everyone is skint in January.”
Lucy said she would understand if her videos were abusive but she claims the worst thing she did was call customers ‘Karens’ in a joking manner.
Some people view the term, widely used on platforms including Twitter, as being sexist and ageist.
She also posted a video suggesting managers argue with staff when they make mistakes but are more lenient when they make the same mistakes themselves.
But she has since deleted that clip from her account because she admitted she could seen an issued – although claims “it was only a joke”.
Some of Lucy’s videos also contain songs which feature rude language.
She said: “The worst thing I did is call customers ‘Karens’ but it was a joke and I see it all the time on TikTok, other supermarket staff in Tesco or even NHS staff do it, so I thought I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
Lucy also claimed that a number of staff members, including management, knew about her page for some time before she was disciplined.
She said: “They knew I made the TikTok videos but they never warned me about it or gave me a chance to stop making them and delete them.”
Posting to her TikTok followers, Lucy said that her main issue with the way she was let go was that she wasn’t given the chance to delete her videos or wasn’t warned of the consequences of posting online.
She said: “They knew I was making them, but nobody warned me or gave me a chance to delete my TikTok videos if they were that much of an issue.
“Nobody gave me a chance to stop making them because I thought I wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
A spokesperson for the Co-operative said: “We do not comment on individual cases but offensive, abusive or derogatory social media posts will not be tolerated and are subject to disciplinary measures.”
