A work from home employee who was fired after her boss tracked her computer activity is worried she will never get hired again.
Suzie Cheiko had worked for Insurance Australia Group (IAG) for almost two decades before she was given a formal warning about her performance in November 2022.
The 38-year-old was put on a performance improvement plan while the company monitored her keystrokes for 49 days.
On February 20, Cheiko was fired for missing meetings, not meeting deadlines, being absent and uncontactable, and making a mistake which led to the industry regulator fining IAG.
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According to news.com.au, the Fair Work Commission upheld IAG's decision to terminate Cheiko's employment.
They found that Cheiko did not work at all on four of the 49 days, started late on 47 days and finished early on 29 days.
Cheiko is now worried that she will never find work again and she has had to turn to Centrelink payments to survive.
“It’s embarrassing that this story has gone viral — nobody is going to hire me,” she told the Daily Mail earlier this week.
“In 18 years of work there I only ever got one warning."
In a TikTok live on Wednesday night, Cheiko said she's been harassed by reporters since her story went viral.
“You don’t understand, I’m actually getting harassed, like I literally just had news reporters here,” she said.
She continued: “This has never happened to me before, and for what?
"Something that’s very emotional and very private, I never even spoke about it on social media.
"I’m literally getting harassed through Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, like what do you want me to do? I can’t get a f**king job.
“They’ve put my face all over social media, I already suffer mental health issues, bro — this is just making things worse.
"It’s not a joke, you don’t understand my mental health is very affected."
In the months since she was fired, Cheiko has amassed a small following on TikTok and has been able to generate some income from the platform.
“I make a small percentage of money off TikTok — just enough to cover my bills,” she told the Daily Mail.
“It’s all to do with my mental health, you see. I’m an advocate because of the mental health issues I have suffered, so I raise awareness by talking about it on ‘lives’.”
LADbible has reached out to IAG for comment.
Keryn Donnelly