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This FedEx delivery guy wasn’t. So, what does it take to get fired?
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Toronto Star
The FedEx delivery guy who appears to have tossed a computer monitor over a customer’s fence might still have his job.
FedEx disciplined him for his casual take on customer service after he was caught on tape, but the company wouldn’t specify whether he was dismissed.
This inspires the question — how badly must an employee behave to get fired?
For a Chicago car salesman, wearing a Green Bay Packers tie to work after the Bears lost to them this January was enough for him to lose his job. On the other side of the spectrum, a British executive got sacked this month after mistakenly sending an expletive-laced rejection email to 4,000 people.
“The line is so fuzzy between what crosses the line and doesn’t,” said Cissy Pau, principal consultant at Vancouver-based Clear HR Consulting.
Context is crucial for dismissal decisions, Pau said. YouTube videos or Facebook photos can be misleading, she said. With an increase in social media, employers must be careful before jumping to conclusions.
Quite a few people were fired after the Vancouver Stanley Cup riots because of incriminating footage, but reputation, ethics and co-worker responses had to be factored in first, Pau said.
With Christmas party season in full force, some people will likely act inappropriately after drinking too much at events, she said. She’s seen people get fired for making unwanted advances at their superiors, but she’s also seen people walk away with only a hangover.
“If you piss off your boss, you’re probably not going to have a lengthy employment,” said Aaron Rousseau, an employment lawyer at Rubin Thomlinson LLP.
Employers often forget that they can fire non-union employees for almost any reason so long as they give them notice or payment in lieu of notice, Rousseau said.
In one of the most memorable cases he’s seen, an employee intentionally soiled himself so he could get the day off.
“His employment was ultimately terminated,” Rousseau said.
But it’s not just employees who behave questionably, he added.
At one young, hip workplace, the employer had attached a large sex toy to the unisex washroom key so it wouldn’t be misplaced. When a female employee complained, her boss refused to get rid of the key-chain. She no longer works there, Rousseau said.
In the white-collar world, it’s rare for an employee to commit a firing offence out of nowhere, said Greg Draper, director of investigative and forensic services at MNP.
Little discretions often build up, he explained. It starts with taking office supplies, then putting wine on a meal claim, then setting up fake vendors and embezzling thousands from the company, Draper said.
“I’ve seen people stealing from their company to pay off their fines from stealing from their last employer,” he said.
Clear policies on behaviour — be it harassment or fraud — need to be in place to set the tone for what’s acceptable from the top, he said. Ongoing correction can prevent the major offences from happening in the first place, he added.
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