Off Duty Conduct: For The Most Part, Who Gives A Crap?

Mark Toth at Manpower Employment Blawg wrote about a recent case out of NYC regarding off duty conduct.

Basically, some dude who was President (but not the highest ranking employee) of a company called "Patriarch Partners, LLP" (What. A. Name.) was fired for appearing on "Real Housewives of New York City".

I absolutely LOVE the firm's lawyer's quote as printed by the NY Post, "They found out he was on the show when the promos ran. He's on a show and never mentioned it. Any other company would have fired him on the spot. He also was not performing or bringing in new deal flow" (emphasis mine).

Are you kidding me? Senior execs usually have employment contracts that require "cause" to be found in order for them to be fired. So the "cause" here is appearing on the show but just in case that sounds TOTALLY RIDICULOUS we're going to say he was a poor performer. Of course, we didn't do anything about the whole poor performance thing prior to him appearing on a television show in which he (most likely, I cannot say for certain as I haven't seen it) didn't mention nor claim to represent his company. Oh and by the way, the main reason for him being on the show was to promote a charity that raises money for a disease his sister suffers from.

Nice move Patriarch Partners!

Look. There are plenty of ways off duty conduct can mess with the workplace. Say an employee of yours also works part time as a stripper. Some guys from the Purchasing Department throw a bachelor party off site and hire her to do her thing. This could create some issues. I get it. (I had to deal with those issues when pictures of the event showed up at work, yo!)

But really? Companies don't own their employees. They don't. And they need to stop acting like it. If I lie to my employer and say I'm sick when I'm not, go on a TV show and say "Hi I'm HR Wench and I work for XYZ Company. I think everyone should boycott Pizza Hut because they suck" they have every right to discipline me according to their policies regarding lying and "representing" the company in the media without permission. But if I schedule a vacation, go on Wheel of Fortune and say "Hi I'm HR Wench from Swampland, USA! Big money!" then it is NONE OF THE COMPANY'S DAMN BUSINESS.

And that is all I have to say about that.