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news
The ill-advised Twitter joke that cost Rayhan Qadar his jobDriver sacked after Twitter 'joke' about hitting a cyclist
A young stockbroker has been sacked this afternoon after joking on Twitter earlier today about hitting a cyclist.
Rayhan Qadar, a graduate at Hargreaves Lansdown posted this to Twitter at 8:05 this morning:
That tweet elicited a storm of criticism from other Twitter users. Qadar later apologised and claimed it had been "a bad joke on my part".
But that doesn't seem to have been enough for his employers.
A spokesman for the investment company told the Bristol Post: "One of our employees has failed to conduct themselves to the standards we expect of our staff.
"We find these online comments totally unacceptable.
"Upon becoming aware of this issue we have terminated this person's employment with immediate effect."
Qadar's initial tweet caused a swift and angry reaction from other Twitter users.
David Stewart posted: "You really are a #cockwomble, enjoy your visit from the plod"
Adam Whittaker said: "You know what's dumber than leaving the scene? Tweeting it for the world to see. I'll be following your case."
Annabel Staff said: "Dear oh dear, you ignorant prick, hopefully you won't have a job to get to by the end of the day, enjoy going to court #Scum"
Germain Burton said: "That's not funny you clown!"
And Greater Manchester Police had this advice: "If you hit a cyclist, you are obliged to stop. I suggest you call 101 as soon as possible, I will forward the details on."
A few hours after his initial post, Qadar claimed it was all a bad joke.
He tweeted: "My previous tweet about the cyclist was obviously not true. I did not hit cyclist. Not today. Not ever. A bad joke on my part it seems."
Followed by: "Sorry if anyone thought i actually hit a cyclist. Anyone who follows me on Twitter know 99% of the things I tweet is nonsense."
Mr Qadar told the Bristol Post: "“I am 100 per cent sorry. It was a joke gone bad. I didn’t think that would happen. I understand now that I can’t say things like that.
“If I did have an accident I would not drive away.”
Police are reported to be investigating.
The #bloodycyclists effect
Another driver who landed in hot water after boasting of hitting a rider on Twitter was trainee accountant Emma Way. On May 19 2013 Ms Way posted: "Definitely knocked a cyclist off earlier - I have right of way he doesn't even pay road tax! #bloodycyclists".
Norwich police investigated Ms Way even though she deleted her Twitter account. After the rider she hit, Toby Hockley, came forward she was charged with careless driving, failing to stop after an accident and failing to report an accident.
She was eventually found guilty of failing to stop and failure to report but was cleared of the careless driving charge. Ms Way was fined £300, had her driving licence endorsed with seven penalty points and had to pay £337 in costs.
In between the tweet and the court case, she was fired from her job as a result of the adverse publicity the incident attracted.
Her lasting legacy has been the hashtag #bloodycyclists, which was appropriated by Twitter's cycling community as in this comment on the Qadar case:
Ooh. He's been dismissed from his job. Don't mess with #bloodycyclists!
— Borghert Borghmans (@StripyMoggie) January 6, 2015
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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48 comments
A bit of investigation would reveal that a lot of companies have policies on social media use and how staff should not make comments that could be taken to represent the views of their employer, it's just a matter of some employers coming into the 21st Century and realising that if someone acts like a tw4t on Twitter or Facebook then they will probably act like a tw4t with customers. Simples !!
It's Bristol
Home of the yoghurt weaving trustafarian "activist" and wannabe urban freedom fighter/casual arsonist, most of whom came up the hard way in fee paying schools, selective grammars and steiner day care for disruptive brats with lots of social capital
They fired him before they had the hippy rich kids in balaclavas turn up outside the offices with protest signs
Wow, you really are a bit special.
Still, beats living in S-o-T. I'd rather hack my own head off than live near there again.
And is ANYONE concerned for the cyclist he may or may not have knocked down and left for dead? If you are that cyclist and you physically can, PLEASE step forward.
As for the rest IDGAF. I'm pleased he got sacked. I was hit and run the driver was never traced mainly because plod CBA.
Now will his insurer void his car insurance or hike is premium? Oh please, oh please!
It's karma.
It does sound as if he may have been accessing his social media feeds at work, and therefore he has infringed the company's IT policy. To get rid of him immediately smacks of this not being a first offence.
I must say that I do feel farrell has it about right.
there is of course one detail we don't know, what was his record at work like, was his dismissal a third strike?
You can say it was an over reaction, but if this was just another example of his behaviour then?
edit, and as pointed out above, his twitter name won't help his cause, it does suggest a level of maturity.
Twitter storm over reaction... if I were this person's employer I would have reprimanded them and then asked them to cycle to work for a month to experience what it's like to ride in busy traffic. A much better PR story for the company too.
If he's been there for less than 2 years he is cannon fodder anyway.
I seriously think all the commentors above have missed the important part of the story
"cockwomble" is my new favourite insult - it just rolls off the tongue
A true staple in the Armed forces insult armoury.
It was Very fast action by his employers .. perhaps this was not an isolated incident of this guy being a tit?
For all we know, he may have already been on 'thin ice' before today.
It's just brought to his employers attention that an employee has his face on a twitter account called r a p e y o u and had many more dubious 'jokes' than this one.
Twitter/Facebook.....Vehicles for the lonely.
Says a bloke posting on another form of social media....
There's a good chance that a fair number of these people are cyclists too http://www.hl.co.uk/about-us/board-of-directors#iangorham
Seriously career limiting move. If there was a version of the Darwin Award (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darwin_Awards) for careers, this guy would defo be a serious contender
Even Old Holborn is getting involved and abusing cyclists on Twitter... we must all be famous.
Let's hope he can't afford his (probably very swanky) car anymore as he is unemployed and has to travel by bike
Having lost my uncle last June in a hit and run incident, you may understand I find this poor taste.When airing anything on social media its worth remembering people in situations such as myself maybe reading it.Hopefully this manchild has learnt that!
I think it's right for his employer to take action. Like it or not, your social media is a representation of the company you work for - even if that's Tesco.
Am I the only one to think his Twitter name is a little on the very dodgy side? Ray Pew? Really?
I live in Bristol, and although the standard of driving has improved over the past five years, there are still plenty of arrogant idiots who are callously indifferent to the safety of cyclists.
If this was a joke, then it was in extremely poor taste, and I applaud the company for taking such decisive and immediate action. Now all we've got to do is get everyone on board with CTC's Road Justice campaign.
Quite. And if indeed it really was a joke. Seems a strange thing to have thought of at a time when presumably he was on his way to work, unless it had actually just happened.
The Boss maybe a cyclist
His former employers are stockbrokers not lawyers!!
http://www.hl.co.uk/
OK, delete the bit about morals and ethics then
Although, if you coincidentally did get knocked off in Bristol today you've got a cast-iron chance at some compensation...
He is an ambassador for his company on and off the playing field, it brings into question the type of employee they have within their establishment...and damages their perceived reputation.
Were the company a bit over enthusiastic in their handling of the situation? Perhaps.
It's a pity though that other 'establishments' can't (perhaps a conscious decision) reign in their employees in such a manner...@KTHOPKINS....
"He is an ambassador for his company on and off the playing field"
Ambassador? Playing field?
Employees have a right to conduct their private lives as they see fit. The problem is that many people have no appreciation of their own (lack of) privacy where social networks are concerned, and social network users don't benefit from inverse-square-law volume decrease that you get in the real world.
If this comment was made in a pub there would be no impact, even though a pub is a public place, because only a handful of people would have heard it. Worst case is that someone would have decked him for being a twat.
Hear hear. I spent a good portion of last night in a couple of discussions trying to explain to people how I think it is wrong that an employer can interfere in something that should have nothing to do with them at all.
Sadly it seems that people these days seem quite happy to accept that your employer should be able to run your life as they see fit for their own benefit or protection.
Discredit your employer my arse. If that's acceptable excuse without any direct reference to them (which it basically is now, they don't seem to have to prove it) then we are essentially saying they can do what they want. Fark that.
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