getting fired because of an affair

[ejb728]

I was just wondering what the laws are on being fired because of having an affair? This is in Tennessee. A friend of mine is in a Pediatric Residency Program. They put him on probation back in July for not really any bad issues, continued to degrade him over the next few months, always negative responses to how he was doing, then last week, he was fired. Never given any specifics except they feel he is irresponsible with no legitimate specifics on that. Then I hear from someone else that they really fired him because he was having an affair. Can this really happen????

 

[buddy2bear]

Oh yes indeedy it can! The employer can say that having an affair with a co-worker impacts on many things in the workplace -- morale, production, ability to do the job efficiently, attention to detail, placing the employer in danger of a lawsuit of some kind, etc., and when the "affair" is over, guess what -- the employer can end up in a sexual harassment lawsuit. Be that as it may, if your friend does not have an employment/union contract, and sometimes even if he does in this case, he can be fired for any reason or no reason. As I always say -- a fox does not dirty his own den -- which means never, never, fool around with "love" in the workplace.