commentator
Senior Member
I agree with this, the only thing this guy is going to be able to get out of you if you fire him is that due to the wishy washy way you have handled the situation, he may end up qualifying for unemployment insurance which could raise your company's unemployment tax rate. What you do is be very specific, give very succinct warnings to accompany the suspension as to what he did that you consider unacceptable. He doesn't get to explain it away. He may refuse to sign a written warning, but if you've given him one, and notated that he refused to sign it, that's all you need to do.
He needs to be fully aware that any sort of questionable behavior of this type in the future is going to be grounds for immediate termination. And then you need to terminate him as soon as there is another questionable incident. And I'd say the recording incident you describe is another unacceptable action in spite of his stupid excuses.
To keep someone from receiving unemployment, you have to have a clearly established misconduct cause, where the individual was aware that their behavior was unacceptable and that they are in danger of being fired, and then if there is a repeat of the creepy behavior, fire him quickly. Don't wish wash around and let him make excuses, and let him continue to work, and then two or three days later, (or two or three weeks later) call him in and fire him. This won't give him a reason to sue you, not an illegal termination, but might accidentally get him unemployment insurance which you do not want to do either.
There is also "gross misconduct" which means something so basically and obviously wrong that the employee would know it was wrong to do even one time. For example, grabbing someone's private parts, or telling another employee he wanted to watch them undress, etc. You should have fired him then instead of giving him a three day suspension and letting him come back to work. But since you did, you need to do the write ups and the whole procedure of firing him now after a suspension.
In providing reason why he was terminated, deal with the employer's misconduct only. Forget about performance issues, they're the most difficult firing reason to prove and keep the person from being approved for unemployment, and if you throw performance of his job into the mix about all this other inappropriate behavior, it will only cloudy the waters. Fire him for behaving as he has, quickly. It is unfair and unjust of you guys, and could very well be cause for a legal action that you are forcing this co-worker he has harassed to put up with further harassment from him.
He needs to be fully aware that any sort of questionable behavior of this type in the future is going to be grounds for immediate termination. And then you need to terminate him as soon as there is another questionable incident. And I'd say the recording incident you describe is another unacceptable action in spite of his stupid excuses.
To keep someone from receiving unemployment, you have to have a clearly established misconduct cause, where the individual was aware that their behavior was unacceptable and that they are in danger of being fired, and then if there is a repeat of the creepy behavior, fire him quickly. Don't wish wash around and let him make excuses, and let him continue to work, and then two or three days later, (or two or three weeks later) call him in and fire him. This won't give him a reason to sue you, not an illegal termination, but might accidentally get him unemployment insurance which you do not want to do either.
There is also "gross misconduct" which means something so basically and obviously wrong that the employee would know it was wrong to do even one time. For example, grabbing someone's private parts, or telling another employee he wanted to watch them undress, etc. You should have fired him then instead of giving him a three day suspension and letting him come back to work. But since you did, you need to do the write ups and the whole procedure of firing him now after a suspension.
In providing reason why he was terminated, deal with the employer's misconduct only. Forget about performance issues, they're the most difficult firing reason to prove and keep the person from being approved for unemployment, and if you throw performance of his job into the mix about all this other inappropriate behavior, it will only cloudy the waters. Fire him for behaving as he has, quickly. It is unfair and unjust of you guys, and could very well be cause for a legal action that you are forcing this co-worker he has harassed to put up with further harassment from him.
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