A supermarket boss in northern Norway has angered labour groups after sacking an employee via a mean-spirited text message.

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The 23-year-old employee had worked at a branch of the Bunnpris supermarket chain in Bodø for a year and a half when he got the message on July 3rd that he wasn’t welcome back to the aisles of the low-price store, newspaper Avisa Nordland reports.

His boss also advised him not to use Bunnpris as a reference if he applied for a new job elsewhere.

“I doubt you’ll do that anyway since you’re honestly best suited to being a social welfare client. Good luck signing on,” the manager wrote.

The recipient of the text message, who asked not to be named, said he was at home due to illness when he got the shock SMS. He said he had not received any advance warning from his employer.

Raymond Alstad at the LO trade union federation said he was horrified by the supermarket manager’s radical course of action.

“I could hardly believe it was true. Getting fired on the spot is quite extreme. That should only happen in the case of theft or embezzlement, or if the employee shows up drunk at work,” he told the newspaper.

After receiving a call on Tuesday from Avisa Nordland, the manager decided to issue an apology and offer the sacked employee the option of coming back to work.

But perhaps unsurprisingly, the 23-year-old had long since shelved any plans of a return to the supermarket.