Unpaid Suspension

[imfinny]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Minnesota. Background: I have been employed at my current job for 27 years. The company (approx 800 employees in MN) manufactures printed circuit boards, and also offers design and engineering assistance when it may help in bringing in manufacturing business (i.e. if we were approached by a customer that required a great deal of design and engineering assistance, but only needed a small amount of product fabricated, they would be turned away). I am currently the Applications Engineering Manager at the company. A while back, I was approached by an unemployed business associate in this industry who was planning to start a consulting business that offered many of the same engineering and design services that are offered by my company. He wanted to form partnership with my company to take on the engineering and design work that my company was not interested in. He also wanted to act as a vendor for these services when we were overloaded. He stressed that he wanted this to be a collaborative relationship with my company and NOT competitive. I gave him permission to use my name on his website since I am well known in the industry, as long as he included in my bio that I was the engineer manager at my current company and also a link to my company. I also had a meeting with the sales director at my company to discuss the possible arrangement and ask his advice on how to proceed. He recommended a meeting with our operations director and product manager, so I began to put together a presentation. It was a few days later that the problems began. Before I could present the proposal to the interested parties, and without my knowledge, the business associate rolled out his website, set out an email blast promoting the website (some of the emails went to individuals at my company), and failed to put my current employer in my bio. I had him immediately correct the omission on his website, and I also met with our operations director to explain the situation. The operations director had already been made aware of the website, but was understanding of the miscue and seemed to be satisfied once he had a full understanding of the situation. The following day, I was pulled into a conference room by my boss and our HR director. After an hour of interrogation, I was put on immediate unpaid suspension and walked out the door while they do their “investigation”. At this point, I have no idea what my status is, or what the future holds. Has my employer acted appropriately and legally? Do I have any rights that protect my job or me? Any other advice?

 

[pattytx]

Why can't people write with paragraphs any more?

 

[eerelations]

Whether your employer has acted appropriately is not a question for this site. However, it is perfectly legal to suspend and even fire you for what you've described. Again, maybe not fair, but definitely legal.

 

[Hot Topic]

Your company had every right to put your on suspension.

Yours is what's called a conflict of interest. You should have gotten permission from the appropriate higher ups before you agreed to let your name be used on the website to be sure they were interested in a collaboration.

You can't blame the business "associate" for what happened. You encouraged him by allowing your name to be used on the website.

I wouldn't be surprised if they fired you.

 

[imfinny]

I did discuss this with one of the "higher ups" (sales director) prior to the website going live and he seemed to be agreeable, but recommended a presentation to the operations director. I was in the process of putting that presentation together when the associate jumped the gun and turned on the website. This was supposed to be an "everybody wins" scenerio, but now it is a nobody wins and I REALLY lose deal.

 

[eerelations]

Unfortunately, you did lose, and your loss is still perfectly legal. All you can do at this point is present your case to the higher-ups and hope they cut you some slack on this. If they don't, and you're fired, it's still legal, and there's not much you can do next except apply for UI and start a job search.

 

[imfinny]

I think that the only thing that I have going for me is that I am very good at what I do there, and they probably don't want me running to a competitor with 27 years of know how. What I don't understand is if they are going to cut me loose and they can legally do so, why the delay? I have now been in limbo for 5 days with really no diretion from the company on whether they are going to reinstate or terminate me. It is not like our HR department is so busy with new hiring that they can't get around to dealing with it. I think they are intentionally letting me stew.

 

[cbg]

Y'know, HR does a lot of things besides hiring and firing. Not to mention the fact that the decision as to whether to fire an employee is seldom the decision of HR alone (in fact, often it is not the decision of HR at all) but takes place on a lot of levels, with a lot of people weighing in and not all of them immediately accessible to drop everything and decide your fate. It isn't all about you and I very much doubt that you are the primary consideration on everyone's mind right now - running the business is. The chances that someone made a conscious decision to "deliberately let you stew" are really not all that high - more like, letting you know what's going on is not everyone's top priority while they deal with the business of running the company. That, not dropping everything to assess the pros and cons of keeping you on board with an obvious conflict of interest vs. going to a competitor, is their concern. The world, and the business, does not revolve around you and how fast you might want to have a decision made.

 

[imfinny]

Although harsh, what you stated is probably true. I have been informed that the company has "decided to retain me as an employee", but there will be "disciplinary actions". I am guessing that those actions will probably include a demotion in job title and pay grade (what else can they do to discipline me?). I also suspect that they will require me to sign a non-compete contract as a condition of my reinstatement. My dilema is that I do not have a 4 year degree, and the only jobs that will pay anywhere close to my current salary would be with a competitor. That means that if I sign the non-compete and they decide to can me a week later, I will probably lose my house because I will not be able to work in this industry. Can they legally force me to sign a non-compete as a condition of reinstatment?

 

[ecmst12]

I suggest you take any proposed non-compete to a local attorney for review before you sign it.

 

[cbg]

Can they legally force me to sign a non-compete as a condition of reinstatment?

Yes. They can.

Whether or not that non-compete would be then enforceable IF you are thereby terminated is a separate issue from the legality of requiring it as a condition of reinstatement.

 

[eerelations]

Working in your chosen field is not necessarily the same as working for a competitor.