Lawsuit in the making?

Paul S

There is a situation unfolding that makes me wonder if we have a potential wrongful termination suit unfolding.

The players are a director, a manager and the director's boss, the vice president.

The Director has a volatile and unpredictable personality. She regularly reams employees for the smallest errors--or even imagined errors. Most who work under her consider her a nightmare boss.

The situation is that she lost her temper and severely disciplined a manager, effectively stripping the manager of all responsibilities and reassigning the manager to a different department as a regular worker. The manager had sent an e-mail report to the vice president that the director interpreted as making her look bad. And that was the reason for the action. Incidentally, she found out about the e-mail by going into the company e-mail system and printing it out.

Our company has a Personnal Policy handbook. The handbook has a section on discipline. The section prescribes a multi-step discipline policy, beginning with a verbal warning and escalating upward. The handbook also describes a dispute resolution process wherein an employee may dispute certain actions/decisions by their managers.

The manager was not afforded any semblence of due process according to the handbook. So, he went to the vice president to try and resolve the matter. In the meantime, the director produced some job-related reasons for transferring the manager. So, the vice president thinks the director's discipline is about those not the temper tantrum.

In the meantime, the manager has tried to refocus things on the report. But the vice president gave him what some might consider a veiled threat. The vice president is interpreting the whole matter as a "personality issue" between the two and has threatened to fire the manager if he cannot get along with the director.

I can just see this situation degrading rapidly to the point where the manager will quit or be fired. Because of the circumstances here, could the company be at risk?

Some things that make me wonder: The director snooping in the e-mail. Somebody tole me that if the company allows personal e-mailing, it establishes a presumed right to privacy for the employees. So, the director may have done something wrong? The other thing is all the policies in the handbook that were not followed. Plus the veiled threat by the vice-president that if the manager didn't drop the whole matter and accept the transfer he may be fired.

Margaret Morford

While I don't have all the facts, I'll try to help. You are probably in an employment at will state, so this person can be fired on the whim of the Director. He also can be threatened by a Vice President if he doesn't "shut up." None of these things are fair, but none are illegal. However, if the individual falls into any type of protected status, he can say that he was disciplined/fired because he's an over forty male with a disability and this Director/Vice President/Organization doesn't like older workers or disabled workers or both. The EEOC and juries bend over backwards to address unfairness. That's the difficulty your organization faces.

In so far as the privacy issue, what does you e-mail policy say? Do you tell employee's e-mail will be monitored and they should have no expectation of privacy? If you do, you're probably okay. If you don't have an e-mail/internet policy, you should. I have one I'll send you if you e-mail me.

Hope that helps.

Margaret Morford
theHRedge
615-371-8200
[email]mmorford@mleesmith.com[/email]
[url]http://www.thehredge.net[/url]

Theresa Gegen TX

Personality conflict is a legal reason for termination -- UNLESS the personality conflict is based on a protected classification (like age, race, sex, etc) or if the manager has a contractual right to continue as a manager (generally only if he has a written contract).

The company should deal with the facts and address the issue and look at both sides. I would refrain from implying that the director was lying about the job performance issues and the reasons for the transfer. The director could be telling the truth and it could just be bad timing for this employee. Also, the director might have a reasonable expectation that the employee would run the report before her before sending it up the chain. The report could be flawed or skewed. And that could be a performance issue.

I expect that your company has an email policy that destroys the right of privacy and the director did not look at a "private" email anyway. It was a business email, that apparently was her business.

Anyone with $150 and paper can file a lawsuit for any reason. The question is: does this employee have a legal basis to do so? Without a protected classification, I don't see it.

Good Luck!

Mentel

Your problem is not a lawsuit in the making. It is the problem of the director that will drive good employees out of the organization. Find a way to get this director some training/help in learning to communicate without anger. You will be doing to entire organization a big favor. I have an idea that she has been successful being abrasive because it gets her results. She needs to learn to get results without the abuse.