Defamation Leading to Termination?

[mdf]

What is the name of your state? Massachusetts

I worked at a company for seven years. After four months of targeted harassment by my new supervisor, I was put on written "probation" for firing. I responded in a separate document that the written reasons my supervisor provided were essentially lies and felt forced to resign since the supervisor clearly intended to continue the harassment and fire me regardless of any efforts on my part to rectify the situation. No one was willing to investigate my claim.

The reasons provided 1) poor performance--(despite double-digit raises every year and highly flattering reviews) 2) a purposeful conflation of three separate incidents into one incident with selective quotations to make me look uncooperative 3) showing up ten minutes late for a meeting because I had a personal issue that I had informed my supervisor about before the meeting. I have witnesses to some very bizarre behavior toward me, witnesses to the truth of events, and emails and file documents (in which she complimented my work) to dispute ever single "cause."

She further accused me of "inappropriate" and "disrespectful" behavior with no examples.

Prior to this action, she also unofficially demoted me and took away my access to a major information resource critical to performing my job. I am pretty sure she did this to me to bring in her own staff (she told me and several others, there were two people she wanted to hire---but we only had one job available). The firm executives had used a lot of personal capital in marketing this woman to the firm staff, so I believe they did not want to pursue this because they would look foolish for supporting her.

It's a finance firm with 85 employees and no HR department, employee advocate or employee handbook. I can honestly say I was always cooperative, especially since I realized what she was doing and needed to keep this job because I was in the process of resolving a personal issue (unrelated to my ability to perform my job) that required me to demonstrate employment. I in no way was willing to jeopardize that.

Is any of this actionable?What is the name of your state?

 

[mlane58]

Sounds like your boss is a world class jerk, but nothing you have posted rises to the level of illegal harassment. Most people don't under the legal definition of harassment or a hostile work enviroment.

To meet either definition, the employee must be able to show that s/he is being subjected to either sexual harassment or illegal discrimination under Title VII (race, religion, national origin, age etc.). It has nothing to do with the atmosphere of your workplace, no matter how unpleasant it may be.

 

[eerelations]

I don't see any possibility of action against the company - it was perfectly legal for the company to fire you based on one of its supervisors opinions of you, even if those opinions are incorrect. And while you may have felt you were being harassed by this supervisor, the harassment you experienced dpoesn't appear to be illegal harassment - as you probably already know, harassment in the workplace if only illegal if it is a direct result of or based on race, religion, gender, or disability etc.

That said, however, you may have a cause of action against the supervisor as an individual (though I personally think this is quite unlikely), if she wilfully lied about your performance and other issues and these lies led directly to your loss of job. You'll need to consult with an attorney about this; most initial consultations of this type are free.

 

[mdf]

Thank you for the quick replies! I understand the likelihood of a wrongful termination suit is probably not supportable given employee-at-will status.

I am more interested in defamation of character or libel. She wrote this stuff down and showed it to her supervisors who believed it. They accepted it with no investigation even after I protested to them. There's no question in my mind, given other things she wrote in the memo, that she had full intentions of firing me regardless and was confident she would get away with it because her supervisors wouldn't investigate.

I'm not looking to file a nuisance suit, but she clearly fabricated things and lied in writing--and I can demonstrate that. She made my life a living hell for three months. If I can return the favor--with legal justification--I would consider it. It's tiring that jerks get away with being jerks.

Is my situation question better posed in a different thread?

 

[mlane58]

Thank you for the quick replies! I understand the likelihood of a wrongful termination suit is probably not supportable given employee-at-will status.

I am more interested in defamation of character or libel. She wrote this stuff down and showed it to her supervisors who believed it. They accepted it with no investigation even after I protested to them. There's no question in my mind, given other things she wrote in the memo, that she had full intentions of firing me regardless and was confident she would get away with it because her supervisors wouldn't investigate.

I'm not looking to file a nuisance suit, but she clearly fabricated things and lied in writing--and I can demonstrate that. She made my life a living hell for three months. If I can return the favor--with legal justification--I would consider it. It's tiring that jerks get away with being jerks.

Is my situation question better posed in a different thread?

While you believe your boss has lied, she just might believe what she has said about you to be true. If it was without a doubt on both sides false, then you might have something. What are your damages since you resigned and didn't get terminated??

 

[eerelations]

Oops, I missed the bit about you resigning, I thought you'd been fired.

The only way you could sue your former supervisor personally for defamation etc. is if you'd suffered damages as a result of her alleged lies. Damages must be expressed in monetary terms. In this case, the damages would be loss of income resulting from your job loss. Since you brought the damages on yourself by resigning, you can't sue your former supervisor for causing these damages - because she didn't.

Whether you resigned or were fired, you still have no case against your former employer. The organization did nothing illegal.

Posting your question elsewhere will not get you a different answer; the law doesn't change from thread to thread or forum to forum.

 

[mdf]

I did resign, but given the harassment, I have a pretty likely constructive discharge scenario.

In terms of damages, her libel lead to my probation with the obvious intent to fire me. Damages, from what I understand, do not have to be actual (although I probably could claim some type of lost wages). Loss of reputation is the claim--which is why, from what I understand, most of these cases are settled. If the case is strong, defendants don't want to risk a jury slamming them with a high punitive damage award.

From what I've read, being fired or constructively discharged is not a valid claim against loss of reputation. But since there's lying involved here, she might be exposed to a libel suit because of malicious intent and ill will. She could have said nothing and just fired me. Instead, she decided to lie because I sincerely doubt that given my reputation at the firm prior to her lies, her bosses would not have agreed to fire me just so she could bring in her own staff. She purposely damaged my reputation with my colleagues. They agreed to allow me to be put on probation based on what she said. At least, that's how I think it might work.

 

[eerelations]

You are incorrect on several points.

You could have a claim for constructive discharge if you were illegally harassed. However, you were not illegally harassed. As I and others have already advised you, harassment is only illegal if it is based on the harassed individual's race, gender, religion and/or disability, etc.

Nowhere in any of your posts have you indicated that your former supervisor harassed you because of your race, gender, religion or disability. This means that while she may have been harassing you in the general sense of the term, she was not illegally harassing you. No illegal harassment = no constructive discharge claim.

Regarding damages, again - you cannot sue anyone for anything unless you can prove that something they did caused you some damage. And you must express that damage in monetary terms.

If you can prove in court that your former supervisor's comments about you resulted in you losing some money, then the amount of money that you lost/will lose is the amount that you sue for. (And your loss of income due to resigning from your job doesn't count - it would only count if you had a valid claim for constructive discharge, and you don't. Please see all of my previous explanations for this.) If you didn't/won't lose any money as a result of your allegedly diminished reputation among your former coworkers, then you cannot sue because you have no damages.

This is the last time I'm going to bother trying to explain these very simple concepts to you. And I don't know why you posted your questions here if you were just going to dispute our responses. You asked for accurate information, and you got it - just because it's not going to make you a million bucks doesn't make it any less correct.

 

[seniorjudge]

People don't like hearing that they have NOT won the lawsuit lottery.

 

[mdf]

Okay--I specifically said I wasn't looking to file a nuisance suit---never mind "win the lottery." I was just looking for information to clarify my understanding. I never said I was discriminated against. My reputation was damaged--my personal integrity, if you will--and I was trying to understand if that was in some way actionable if someone lied. Perhaps this may surprise people here, but I actually cared about what my company and coworkers thought of me and my work. Whether I won $1 or $1 million dollars wouldn't be the point. The point would be exposing the lie that people believed and holding the liar accountable.

If all this were so obvious, sorry for posting.

Thanks though.

 

[eerelations]

"...exposing the lie that people believed and holding the liar accountable" is not actionable. While I fully understand your need to get some justice - i.e., have your former supervisor experience some negative consequences for telling lies about you - there are simply no legal means to enable you to get that justice.

Regarding your statement that we thought the answers to your questions should have been obvious to you - we didn't think so. If you look at my first response to you, you'll see that I explained things to you in a very non-patronizing way. It was only when you seemed to disregard my explanations and continued to insist that you'd been illegally harassed (when you said you'd been constructively discharged) that I became impatient and reiterated my explanations in a stronger tone.

 

[pattytx]

"Insurance suit"? Insurance against what?

 

[chicky8]

nuisance suit!

my state is: CA

UM.....I believe the correct quote if you'd bothered to read it is: "Okay--I specifically said I wasn't looking to file a nuisance suit" the word is NUISANCE not insurance - posted by mdf yesterday. Sheesh I think you senior members are so full of yourselves that you enjoy berating honest queries. MDF was simply expanding on his story and filling in the missing spots. You didn't need to shove your knowledge down his throat.

I came to this forum hoping for some enlightenment and all I've come away with is confusion. I'm saddened to see so many people having so many workplace issues. It seems that the majority of folks reporting on harassment are searching for a way to clear their good name. One thing I'm sure I've learned is: Large/Big business is full of sneaky back-stabbing management. I hope and pray that you (mdf) find justice or at least peace with what you suspect your superiors have done to you.

 

[pattytx]

Sheesh, lighten up.

In any case, "nuisance suit"? Judges don't like those. And often, the plaintiff ends up paying the court costs of the defendant in "nuisance suits". You have nothing to sue for. Get over it and move on.