In this real-life case, two employees have a spat. One gets revenge by “outing” the other to co-workers as a lesbian, and gets fired. Did a court uphold the firing?

The facts: Amid charges and counter charges of sexual harassment, poor performance and lack of cooperation, two female employees argued continually and were told to cease and “just let it go” by their supervisor . One of the employees, however, took it one step further and told co-workers that her adversary was a lesbian – which turned out to be true. The employer fired the employee who outed her co-worker. The fired employee sued for wrongful termination, arguing that she was being singled out.

The employer said:
The supervisor had warned both employees to end the dispute. Letting other employees know the sexual orientation of the co-worker represented defiance of the warning.

Who won the case?

Answer: The employer.

Why: A judge said the company had the authority to fire an employee who defied an order from a supervisor – and discussing an employee’s sexual orientation with others was a clear violation of the order.

You can’t absolutely bar employees from discussing others’ sexual orientation or other personal matters except when such discussions are harmful to the conduct of business. In this case, the continuation of an argument, by exposing sexual orientation, was considered harmful to business and a firing offense.

Cite: Bell v. AAMG.

Tags: firing, lesbian, outed, sexual harassment, termination