16-year-old Kim Swann went on facebook and took the opportunity to describe her job as “boring”. She cannot be alone in having done this and, as she was working in the office of a logistics company, it was almost certainly true.

What marks her out though, is the response of her employers, which was to fire her after only three weeks in the job.

Her mother has been quoted as saying: “I think she’s been treated totally unfairly. She didn’t mention the company’s name. This is a 16-year-old child we’re talking about. She says Clacton is boring but we’re not going to throw her out of the house for it.”

Kim herself added “You shouldn’t really be hassled outside work. It was only a throw-away comment. ”

The employers in question are Ivell a marketing and logistics firm. I note that the “contact us ” page on their site has now been taken down – presumably due to abusive e-mails which have been sent to them. I noticed this when I visited the site to not send an amusing message.

When the site is up and running again, perhaps I can ask them (as marketing experts) whether all publicity really is good publicity?

Muppets.