Old emails can’t haunt you
When Wade responded to the offer he said, “I very much look forward to working in harmonious relations with all staff and departments.”. The employer replied, “Once again, welcome and we certainly look forward to a lengthy harmonious and prosperous relationship with you.”. Obviously harmony was very important to this employer. Four years later Wade sent an email to 2 other colleagues relating to shipping documents of a customer saying “Hi guys – I am assuming that they want us to arrange pickup?”. Later that day he was confronted by his boss about the appropriateness of this email. Wade said it was a joke, became upset and said “I quit”. It was near the end of the day and Wade left the office. His passcode was changed after he left but the boss did not ask for his laptop or keys.
The next morning Wade showed up at his usual time and went to his desk and started working. The boss heard about it and confronted him. He asked him what he was doing there. Wade said he had reconsidered and regretted the discussion of the previous day. About 2 hours later the boss came back and told him the owner did not want Wade anymore. Wade asked for a Termination Letter but was not given one. Wade insisted on calling the RCMP to serve as a neutral witness and waited for the officer before packing his things and leaving. (That was weird. Don’t do that. The police have far better things to do.)
Wade sued for wrongful dismissal and the employer claimed that he had quit and was not terminated. It also claimed that they found an email from over a year before that Wade wrote to his girlfriend, a subordinate in another department who also worked at the company. In it he, denigrated 2 other employees and calling one twice as stupid as the other. The employer claimed that given that Wade had been spoken to before about some of the disrespectful language and communications he used this constituted just cause. Although the employer did not know about the email when Wade left, the law does recognize “after acquired cause”. For example, if you terminate somebody because you have a shortage of work for cashiers but before you’ve pay them out a severance you discover they were skimming from the till, you do not have to pay them. They still did what they did and just because you did not know about it at the time of termination does not change that fact.
The judge found that Wade had not in fact effectively quit. The law is clear that an intention to resign must be clear and unequivocal. Wade’s utterance of the words “I quit” was an emotional outburst and did not demonstrate a true intention to resign. So far so good for Wade. Wade’s email was sent on his business account to another employee, girlfriend or not. Given the employer’s insistence on “harmonious relations” from the very beginning of the employment relationship, the judge found that the email constituted abrasive and rude behaviour and was in serious breech of the terms of Wade’s employment. It was found by the judge that there was just cause for Wade’s termination. He lost his case and had to pay at least some of the employer’s legal fees. While everyone should be careful about the emails they send, an isolated incident of bad judgement would not usually on it’s own constitute just cause for termination without notice. Wade’s employer was specifically focused on harmonious relations within the company, however, and clearly communicated that to Wade.
In addition, his mouth/typing had gotten him into trouble before. Almost the first thing employers do when things go sour in an employment relationship is start searching through old emails to see what dirt they can find. Try not to be silly enough to give them what they are looking for.
