(11-11-2017, 10:13 PM)Sneakers Wrote:

(11-10-2017, 10:11 PM)TJBender Wrote: As long as it's not being brought to work or affecting the employee's job performance (yes, being in jail and/or rehab counts as affecting job performance), it's none of the employer's business. The caveat to that is at-will employment, in which case an employer is free to make personnel decisions on just about any basis they choose to.

You're exactly right about at-will employment.  An individual can be terminated at any time for any (non-discriminatory) reason.  That being the case, a public gesture such as giving the President the finger, isn't a very bright thing to do.

There's a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it. If an employer feels the need to get rid of that employee, the right way to do it is wait a couple weeks, take responsibilities away, make their days more and more miserable, and if they haven't quit on their own in a month or given you bulletproof cause to fire them (the watercooler is a dangerous place), just unceremoniously eliminate their position, wait a month, invent a new title for the same job and go hire someone. You're stuck paying unemployment, sure, but sometimes unemployment is a whole lot cheaper than dealing with a labor attorney who thinks he's going to get Labor Day renamed after himself by bending you over a chair. It's not hard to make a problem employee go away without having to tiptoe around the disciplinary process or deal with litigious questions about why.

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