Do I have a Case? HR gossiped about a firing

[worriedemployee]

I'm in California and I work for a small business. It's a startup. I have been informed of my upcoming termination not from my boss, or the director or the CEO, but through the grapevine of gossip. Here's the issue: The HR representative/director spread it, during a 1-on-1 evaluation with another employee. This HR rep told my coworker after their evaluation, "Want to hear some office gossip? Guess who's going to get fired next! Guess who's in the 'red zone' and is being kept a close eye on?"

HR told my coworker this, saying, "Does [me] seem sad to you? Do you think he knows we're going to fire him?"

Needless to say, this has caused me unneeded stress and my health and sleep have been affected by it.

Do I have a case?

 

[You Are Guilty]

I'm in California and I work for a small business. It's a startup. I have been informed of my upcoming termination not from my boss, or the director or the CEO, but through the grapevine of gossip. Here's the issue: The HR representative/director spread it, during a 1-on-1 evaluation with another employee. This HR rep told my coworker after their evaluation, "Want to hear some office gossip? Guess who's going to get fired next! Guess who's in the 'red zone' and is being kept a close eye on?"

HR told my coworker this, saying, "Does [me] seem sad to you? Do you think he knows we're going to fire him?"

Needless to say, this has caused me unneeded stress and my health and sleep have been affected by it.

Do I have a case?

A case for what, unemployment benefits? (I'd say yes).

 

[mlane58]

I'm in California and I work for a small business. It's a startup. I have been informed of my upcoming termination not from my boss, or the director or the CEO, but through the grapevine of gossip. Here's the issue: The HR representative/director spread it, during a 1-on-1 evaluation with another employee. This HR rep told my coworker after their evaluation, "Want to hear some office gossip? Guess who's going to get fired next! Guess who's in the 'red zone' and is being kept a close eye on?"

HR told my coworker this, saying, "Does [me] seem sad to you? Do you think he knows we're going to fire him?"

Needless to say, this has caused me unneeded stress and my health and sleep have been affected by it.

Do I have a case?

A case for what? what law do you think has been violated? No laws have been violated here.

 

[cbg]

Not even remotely. The HR rep needs to go back to HR school and learn the words "professionalism" and "discretion" but the law does NOT prohibit the employer, in whatever form, from discussing your termination ahead of time.

The HR rep was unprofessional. She did not violate any laws or any of your protected rights.

 

[eerelations]

Have you actually been fired? Has anyone other than this one possibly lying coworker said anything about this to you?

 

[commentator]

Have you had prior write ups, problems with your job performance, issues with management leading to discipline? If not, this may simply be a management technique designed to get you to be worried, try harder, behave better. Or even, as someone suggested, a lying coworker. Because as cbg commented, this is a dreadful and unusual lack of professionalism on the part of the hr person.

Since this is a small company, they may actually be needing to downsize, and would hope maybe they could get you to quit before they had to lay you off by spreading a rumor that your job was in jeopardy.

Even if you think it's true, keep on doing your job to the best of your abilities. Do not even THINK about quitting, as this may be the goal of this gossip campaign. Stay around, be happy (or at least appear happy) and work hard. If you are called in and terminated, be sure you get documentation about the why s and the wherefores. Do not admit any wrongdoing, and do not, whatever they say to you, agree to resign instead of be fired. Make them fire you if they think they have any reason. Then you can go straight and file for your unemployment insurance and probably be approved. This will cost the company money, so they'd love to have you quit instead.

If they did fire me, before I left, I think I would be tempted to say, "Well, actually Matilda, I would like to say that I think your passing of the word on to my co-workers about this planned termination before the fact was very unprofessional, and I do plan to speak to someone higher about your behavior."

Then, in fact, I would think about sending something to Matilda's supervisor or the company head about her breach of confidentiality and unprofessional behavior.

Then sign up on your unemployment and move on to find another job. You really can't sue or punish too much for this, if it did actually happen.