What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Arkansas
My wife and I were managers for a major apartment community company in Arkansas. One evening, after work hours, we invited our staff upstairs (to the managers apartment above the office) for a meal and drinks. The maintenance man and I had become buddy-buddy and our assistant is a single mother without much to live on. We found out that our Assistant manager was only 19 and she was told not to drink any of our alchohol. So about 10pm comes around and we decide to "do a light audit", consisting of driving the property and looking at the security lighting and making sure all the bulbs are lit. So we all loaded up on the 4-seat golf cart and started it. After a bit, the maintenance man and I thought we should go across the street to our sister property, owned by the same company, and "steal" their golf carts. So we did, and we left paperwork over there telling them where their golf carts were. So the manager across the street actually filed a police report, even though her husband and i had been doing practical jokes with eachother for a while. (We trained that management team and were, at least until that point, on good terms.)
So anyway, we all go back to oour managers apartment and continue to party. My wife gets sick, and after she cleans up, the maintenance man and I help her to bed. End of evening.
Well, the supervisor winds writing us up for the evening citing 5 company standards we didn't uphold or whatever. we sign and the supervisor states that they just want to put this behind all of us. Ok.
Fast forward about 1 month. (another long story, gonna make it shorter) Maintenance man is dating the Assistant manager. Resident calls us and says the maintenance man called her on her cell and she hadn't given him her number. We call HR, they say ask for his keys give him no details (there was another issue with another female resident going on too) and we'll let him know whats when we find out. This was a Friday. On Sunday i see him checking his mail and invite him upstairs and offer him a beer because we need to talk about what went on. We told him that Resident Relations got a call from a resident and i asked if he went into the resident files for phone numbers and he said yes and that was not the first time. i told him, nicely, that he could expect to lose his job.
He did and was given 3 days (standard) to move out.
Next thing we know is theres a big meeting called on the friday after the maintenance man called the resident, and the assistant manager and my wife are interviewed separately. I was never interviewed about anything, but my wife told me that the maintenance man made an accusation of her groping him that night a month ago at the party. The supervisors and HR decided to think about the situation over the weekend, and called us in at noon on the following monday to terminate us, saying we weren't to discuss this with anyone, not friends or even family, whats going on, just that my wife and i needed to "make some changes in our lives." We were also told that after 6 months or a year we could be rehired by the company.
I got a call from unemployment today as the first phone interview, and was told that the final act for my termination was "inappropriate behavior with employees."
Can this company terminate me rightfully for A) something my wife was accused of or alleged to have done and B) something that was after work hours? Does the company have the right to tell managers that they can't associate with employees off the clock but tell managers that We (as a company) can't tell (hourly) employees what they can do in their off work hours?
My wife and I were managers for a major apartment community company in Arkansas. One evening, after work hours, we invited our staff upstairs (to the managers apartment above the office) for a meal and drinks. The maintenance man and I had become buddy-buddy and our assistant is a single mother without much to live on. We found out that our Assistant manager was only 19 and she was told not to drink any of our alchohol. So about 10pm comes around and we decide to "do a light audit", consisting of driving the property and looking at the security lighting and making sure all the bulbs are lit. So we all loaded up on the 4-seat golf cart and started it. After a bit, the maintenance man and I thought we should go across the street to our sister property, owned by the same company, and "steal" their golf carts. So we did, and we left paperwork over there telling them where their golf carts were. So the manager across the street actually filed a police report, even though her husband and i had been doing practical jokes with eachother for a while. (We trained that management team and were, at least until that point, on good terms.)
So anyway, we all go back to oour managers apartment and continue to party. My wife gets sick, and after she cleans up, the maintenance man and I help her to bed. End of evening.
Well, the supervisor winds writing us up for the evening citing 5 company standards we didn't uphold or whatever. we sign and the supervisor states that they just want to put this behind all of us. Ok.
Fast forward about 1 month. (another long story, gonna make it shorter) Maintenance man is dating the Assistant manager. Resident calls us and says the maintenance man called her on her cell and she hadn't given him her number. We call HR, they say ask for his keys give him no details (there was another issue with another female resident going on too) and we'll let him know whats when we find out. This was a Friday. On Sunday i see him checking his mail and invite him upstairs and offer him a beer because we need to talk about what went on. We told him that Resident Relations got a call from a resident and i asked if he went into the resident files for phone numbers and he said yes and that was not the first time. i told him, nicely, that he could expect to lose his job.
He did and was given 3 days (standard) to move out.
Next thing we know is theres a big meeting called on the friday after the maintenance man called the resident, and the assistant manager and my wife are interviewed separately. I was never interviewed about anything, but my wife told me that the maintenance man made an accusation of her groping him that night a month ago at the party. The supervisors and HR decided to think about the situation over the weekend, and called us in at noon on the following monday to terminate us, saying we weren't to discuss this with anyone, not friends or even family, whats going on, just that my wife and i needed to "make some changes in our lives." We were also told that after 6 months or a year we could be rehired by the company.
I got a call from unemployment today as the first phone interview, and was told that the final act for my termination was "inappropriate behavior with employees."
Can this company terminate me rightfully for A) something my wife was accused of or alleged to have done and B) something that was after work hours? Does the company have the right to tell managers that they can't associate with employees off the clock but tell managers that We (as a company) can't tell (hourly) employees what they can do in their off work hours?
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