Dear GayCalgary Legal Advice,
Your last letter was almost a mirror image of my current dilemma! The company I work for has hired on someone that I’ve had personal experience with outside of work, and he is BAD NEWS. He is a compulsive liar that’s alarmingly good at getting what he wants. His only real skill is his mouth, and his ability to manipulate others into corroborating his outlandish stories. Unfortunately this gives the false appearance that he’s legit. He’s so far up my boss’ ass right now, and making good use of the blind spot to implement things that are already leading our entire company to utter disaster!! Many of my co-workers have come to see right through his not-so-white lies. We have tried to warn our boss, but with all the talking he’s gotten in already, we are not being properly heard. We can only guess what kind of things he’s said about us to discredit us in order to protect his own reputation. Now our own jobs are at stake – whether we get fired because of him, or we have to quit to escape his serpent tongue. How can we chase this snake out of our lives without becoming snakes ourselves? Is it reasonable for us to try and gather irrefutable evidence from his past and present it to our boss? Or can he only be fired for his actions in this current job? A lot of us are scared because we don’t know whether he can come after us if he does get the boot due to our active efforts. The last thing we want is for this serpent to turn into a hydra!
Karma, the Bitch.
Dear Karma,
You do not need to be a snake to kill another snake. The most effective way to kill a snake is to use a mongoose. They are effective little creatures because they are very fast and extremely smart. To deal with the snake in your midst then you also want to be fast and smart. You need evidence and to know what to say to your boss. If you make even a small a mistake then, like the mongoose, it will likely be fatal. If you do nothing then the snake may still get you or you may starve to death. Not much of a choice really.
Truth is always a defense to any allegation of defamation (slander or libel), but you better be able to prove it if you get someone fired. If you get someone fired based on gossip or hearsay then you may get fired or sued yourself.
If you can get proof then you may want to go to your boss again, but if that evidence is coming from someone’s ex-boss then how do you know if the information is truthful? Maybe the ex-boss has an axe to grind. Maybe this person quit to go to the competition. If so, maybe the ex-boss wants revenge. This person will get their revenge and you will be left holding the bag. You need to be very careful - you need to be smart.
As a general rule, your co-worker can only be fired “for just cause” based upon what he has done at his current job. This means he can be fired and not given any notice or severance. On the other hand, your employer can fire any worker at any time for any reason as long as the employee is given a proper severance package. The only exception is that a person cannot be fired for a discriminatory reason like gender, race or sexual orientation. What is a “proper severance package” is a whole other story and would take me too long to answer that here, but if your co-worker has not been there very long then the severance package would likely be small unless the person holds a very senior position - you need to be fast.
In sum, your employer can fire this guy if he screwed up so badly at another employer that nobody would ever hire him again, but he would probably have to be given a severance package. You should be very careful about how you tip off your employer about him. You do not want to defame him in any manner. Tell your boss the truth and make sure it is the truth. Sometimes it is all in the delivery. For example, you do not want to say that “Johnny robbed his former employer so you should fire him”. Instead, you may want to consider saying “I don’t know for sure, but I heard from Lisa, who used to work with Johnny, that he stole money from the till. You may want to look into it”. Your boss can then look into the matter and call Lisa or his former employer.
The same goes the other way. If your co-worker gets you fired for idle gossip then you may have a good case for wrongful dismissal. If someone is telling lies about you then you may also have a defamation case against him or her. The best advice is to follow the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”. If someone went to your boss with information about you then would you not want him or her to have proof? Would you not want your boss to give you a fair hearing?.
Darryl A. Aarbo
If you wish to send in a letter, please email it to legaladvice@gaycalgary.com. Darryl A. Aarbo can be directly reached at Courtney Sebree Aarbo, Barristers & Solicitors, 1138 Kensington Road NW, Calgary, Alberta, T2N 3P3. Visit their website at http://www.csalaw.ca. Phone (403) 571-5133. Fax: (403) 571-5134
Other than the question, all personal information (i.e. name, address, E-mail) will remain confidential. GayCalgary.com Magazine does reserve the right to alter questions for brevity and content.
