What NBR readers say about Auckland Council's Twitter bullying
A council attempt to silence a critic by complaining to the person's employer has drawn a huge response from readers.
NBR ONLINE readers are united in their condemnation of Auckland Council bullying after the story of a Telecom employee who criticised the council on Twitter.
Tara Sutherland, a senior infrastructure designer at the telco, sent a scathing tweet about Auckland's parking prices on Monday.
She later alleged someone from the council's transport arm, Auckland Transport, complained to her employer about the tweet.
The story has prompted a huge response from NBR ONLINE readers, with one saying: "Auckland Transport is a loathsome organisation littered with bully boy arrogant twits."
Sarah M writes: "While this tweet was seemingly by one errant staff member, I must record that having dealt with Auckland Transport for some years now on a range of issues, my experience has been of an organisational culture that is arrogant, closed-minded, incompetent, inwardly focused.
"They certainly have no customer service culture," she says.
Among dozens of reponses another reader claims that in the council lunch room, they were warned "not to dunk my wine biscuit in my cup of milo in the presence of any supervisor".
"I feel bullied in being denied a simple pleasure during my 10-minute morning tea break."
Other readers back Ms Sutherland's approach: "Have you ever tried getting a response from Auckland Transport?
"You have to fill in an online form and then wait 10 working days for a response. I received the response – which didn't answer my question – and rang the person listed on the reply.
"I was told I would need to fill out the online form again with my queries and wait another ten days for a reply. Is this a customer service organisation?"
Auckland Transport says it is conducting an internal investigation into what happened.
Caleb Allison
Wed, 12 Dec 2012
Wed, 12 Dec 2012
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What NBR readers say about Auckland Council's Twitter bullying
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