Emily Brown
An Australian estate agent has stood by the critical comments she made about renters on Facebook, despite the fact that they got her fired.
Aimee Therese Marsh was a top-performing estate agent at Brisbane's Ray White Aspley, but that didn't stop her from being fired on Tuesday (22 August) over her controversial social media posts.
Using her professional account, Marsh took to the Griffith Neighbourhood Facebook page to make the since-deleted comments in which she described tenants as a 'disgrace' and 'irrelevant'.
In one post, she wrote: “Half of them don’t even own homes in Griffin."
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Another read: "They probably earn 50k a year and (are) envious of me. I pay twice their wage in tax, or I probably pay their Centrelink wages.”
Speaking to news.com.au, Marsh said the situation escalated when the post became overrun with trolls, whom she responded to via her personal account.
Despite having previously had counseling about her social media use early in her career, Marsh said she couldn't contact her managers and 'lacked support' from the business when the trolls got involved.
“I went into defence mode, " she said. “It seems it is okay if they slander you but you can’t fight back.”
Unfortunately, Marsh's public comments led her to losing her job - a reaction that left Marsh disappointed but not regretful of what she'd said.
Marsh has claimed the comments were taken out of context, but said she wasn't 'sorry for telling the truth' and apologised to those who were 'offended that were not targeted'.
“I’ve always been a transparent and direct person,” she said. “I don’t let people walk over me the way they used to. I think that comes through what you have been through. You develop a backbone.”
The publicity around her story has led to Marsh receiving messages and calls from trolls who are 'abusing' her, though she has received support from the business community in the wake of the events.
“A lot of business owners actually have my back and have been offering support and checking whether I am okay,” she said.
Alex Tilbury, a spokesperson for Ray White, said in a statement that Marsh was fired because her views 'do not align with the values of our business'.
“As a result we made the business decision to terminate her employment,” Tilbury continued.
“We respect and value each and every one within our community … We apologise to anyone who may have been offended as well as any members within our community if these views have offended.”
The spokesperson added that Marsh has been offered counseling through Ray White’s employee assistance program.
Before she was let go, Marsh had been dubbed 'agent of the month' by her employer in January.