Business Owner Ethical Question... Kind of long but PLEASE READ... I need serious advice?

Question

I have a successful small business. 15 employees. When I hire an employee I tell them felonious pasts have no bearing on hiring. They know in advance that somebody they work with might be a felon and they agree to that stipulation. One employee of mine is a felon – he downloaded child pornography about 8 years ago and served two years in prison. He did the crime and served his time – end of the felony story. He has been working for me for about 5 years. He is a college graduate and a PHENOMENAL employee. He brings in new clients all the time and is paid very well ($150,000 a year). A lady that has been working with me for about 1 year found out about his pay and was upset because she only gets $50,000 a year. She then found out about his past and confronted me hoping that I would fire him. I told her I knew about his past and was not going to fire him. She spread his past around the office and to the community causing me to lose 3 clients (1 major client). continued.......

She even went to the media, which caused a little frenzy. I fired her because she made me lose those clients. She unsuccessfully tried to sue me. The rest of the office is O.K. with him because he is a genuinely nice guy and the rest of the clients are O.K. with him because he is very professional. My company lawyer told me that I could probably sue her for slander (not because she ousted his past because that was not slander, but she told other stuff that was a lie – which I have irrefutable proof). Now, she is a mother with 2 children. I lost a LOT of money because of her. The one big client I lost was a BIG client. I will most likely win a big settlement. I give the same speech to ALL potential employees that I hire based on credentials and NOT on a felonious past. I even tell them to imagine that the person they work next to HAS committed a crime that they think is atrocious just to alleviate any doubt as to whom I hire. continued...

She, as with all the other employees agree to this. Remember – SHE KNEW WHEN SHE WAS HIRED THAT I HIRE PEOPLE WITH A FELONIES. I know this all started because she found out about his pay and was jealous. Her pay was proportionate to what she brought in – same as his. I lost approximately 1.5 million due to lost clients. The question is: Should I sue this lady for slander and win knowing that this will disrupt her life? Thank you for reading.

Some of you wonder why I have a compulsion to hire people with felonies. I don't have a compulsion to hire people with felonies. I DO have a compulsion to hire qualified people that will make money. Thanks and God bless

Once you have done the time... Your past is over with in my book. What is in your past STAYS in your past.

One last detail... the employee is a REGISTERED sex offender available for the public to see anyways.

Answer 1

From one business owner to another, and I have over 180 employees, the situation that you now face I faced several years ago with an employee. I truly understand about hiring felons and I do agree with what you stated - he paid his debt to society, but society has it's own ways of seeing things. As for the lady in question - you are right, she probably was upset at the difference in wages. But the damage is done.

As a business owner I'm sure that you have already given some thought as to what options you have as for what you are going to do next. A cease and desist order may work instead of a law suit. Talk it over with your attorney. If a cease and desist don't work - sue. Next, repairing the damage that is done. This might not work for your company because you have 15 employees but I put together a team of people who did a PR to all my customers (which included the Federal Government) and reafirmed them what my company does and what we stand for. I also stated our goals and "MY" hiring practices. Which included felons. I also stated that my employees are real people and I treat them as such. They are my biggest "asset" and not a liability. Several of my employees can not work on government projects because they are felons but they are still excellent employees and do work on non-government projects with no problems.

As for losing a few clients - I also had the same problem. I contacted these clients and had a meeting with the owners. I listened to their concerns and addressed each objection. At the end I asked one question - Do you have any felons on your payroll that you are "not" aware of? I got a quick answer of no right off the bat. About 3 weeks later I was asked to lunch by one of my clients (that I lost) and was told that his company wanted to do business with me again. You see, those clients started running employee checks and found that they too hired a few felons that they didn't know about.

Your situation is a little different. You asked your employee before he was hired and you were told the truth. You knew.

By the way, I would keep the employee.

Hope this help!

Answer 2

You should absolutely fire her if you haven't already. You'll need to be very careful about documenting your story as I'm sure your lawyer has advised.

You have to weigh the potential benefit of the lawsuit against the likely costs. Will she be able to pay the settlement or judgment? Will you be able to afford the lost productivity as your time is taken up with all the legal details? Will your firm suffer additional loss of reputation as a result of any publicity that arises from the lawsuit? If the answer to the first two is no, and the answer to the third is yes, then maybe the lawsuit isn't a good idea.

You might be able to rebuild the relationship with the lost client, and I suspect that the longer-term health of your company would be better addressed there.

Meanwhile, if you haven't fired her already, you should do so at the earliest possible opportunity. I would strongly recommend that you contain the discussion of her termination to the specific cause, which is the loss of the client, the loss of reputation and revenue for your firm, and her deleterious impact on the morale of other employees.

Good luck

Answer 3

First off, I want to say that I think it's great that you are willing to give a felon a second chance.

However, if this biatch only told people the truth (that you employ a felon & what he was convicted for) I don't think you have much of a legal recourse as it's true. I'm not sure what "other stuff" she said but depending on what she said you may be able to sue her, especially since she went to the press.

Sit down with your attorney and ask him how strong your case is and ask for a guestimate of how much it'll cost you in money and time to follow through. Once you've got a general idea of the costs (financial and personal) to take her to court then you'll be able to make a more informed decision about whether or not it's worth it to you. DO NOT worry about how this will effect her when making your decision. That may sound harsh but I'm a mom myself and I've got enough of a brain to know that there's a line in the sand that I can't cross now that I have the responsibility of children.

Personally, if your attorney says you have a good case I take her to court. I'd ask for a huge amount of money but would give her the option of recanting publicly and making an apology. As part of the public apology I think I'd make her take out an ad in the paper... a big ad.

There's also the issue of the lost clients to consider. I'd try contacting the clients in person and asking them if they were dissatisfied with the quality of work that you had been giving them. After they've said that no, that's not the problem I'd point out to them that your felon employee had been one of the ones doing this work.

All in all it's a crappy situation for you. You're stuck in the middle of prejudice and that's a hard spot to be in. Regardless of how things work out try to remember that you're the good guy here.

Answer 4

I think you seem like a decent person. Kudos to you for giving the man a chance at life again after prison time. (As a mother I don't think I could do that..) I think you rightfully fired her, but you chose to fire her. Had you not chosen to fire her, you'd have your big client. Move on. Get more clients. When you hire new employees, make them sign a paragraph letting them know that you may have hired employees with felonious pasts. Continue to be the respectable employer that you are. God will have a big golden mark on the good list for you in Heaven. Don't sue her.

Answer 5

I'm inclined to agree with the poster who said to go ahead & sue, then settle for a public apology. After all, this woman was loud and noisy, costing you clients and in some part your reputation. She deserves to be made to apologise at the very least.

In the future, I might put the working with felons stipulation in writing. If you make people sign off on something when they are hired you can at least show it to them if it ever becomes an issue.
Bonus points to you for letting people's past remain in the past.

My biggest concern is how she became aware of a co-worker's salary. That is a major no-no, and you see the result.

Answer 6

Not sure if you will win--- slander is usually only proven when what the person was spreading around was not true. But you may be able to get her for defamation of character, if the nature of your business has really nothing in it that can be influenced in one way or another by an employee's history with child porn. So you should speak with a lawyer to see if you have grounds for a case. It really depends on your business type--- a company selling computer security software, for example, could be exploited by an employee with a history of downloading child porn, because they may be able to plant "back doors" into the software that would let them spy on kids. Even if the employee has never done this, just the possibility of it happening makes it harder to prove defamation of character. But if your company has nothing to do with kids or kiddie porn, then it shouldn't matter that you have an ex-felon on your payroll, and she's harmed the reputation of the company by preying on people's fears.

That said, yes, you should go after her and not worry if it distrupts her life--- she has disrupted life for everyone working at the company by taking away clients.

Answer 7

This isn't an ethical issue at all. This is an economic issue. You'll win a big settlement yes. But the woman's gonna go to jail because she can't pay it. You'll have to face up to the fact that society isn't going to be as understanding or as forgiving as you are. That's the risk you take when you choose your employees. If you sue her, you're going to face even more bad PR. You could lose more clients. You'll lose money and in general, be in worse shape than you were before. Sometimes it's best to let sleeping dogs lie, as they say. Let it blow over.

Answer 8

I've hired ex-felons and have had mixed results. One guy with a first degree manslaughter conviction was the best manager I ever had work for me. A host of others, particularly drug convictions, didn't work out so well. It seems that many of them have paid a "debt to society" but have not necesarily decided that the payment is too much to risk again.
That said, your ethical conviction and values are clear in your belief that everyone deserves a second chance if they have owned up to past transgressions. With this in mind, the decision to sue your opportunist ex-employee is only an economic one, but may allow you to focus resources to other things you value, like taking care of employees, customers other stakeholders that you value. If you choose to sue, I have no doubt that she will leverage her loss and minimize the negative impact to her. I imagine she will paint herself as a martyr and find some unsuspecting firm that will then parade her around as a champion of ethics and "values". She no doubt has convoluted the story to paint you as the villian. The slander judgement may vindicate you in a way that allows you to redeem some of your reputation with customers, over and above the damages.
As far as negative impact to her family, they are benefitting from the fruits of her predatory behavior and will continue to do so in the future.

I wish you better luck in weeding out crappy personalities like her's in the future.

Answer 9

I think that every action comes with a consequense, and people need to learn that there are penalties to their actions. If someone purposely slanders a company, then that person should be punished because she knew what she was doing was wrong yet she did it relentlessly. People need to learn a lesson in life that they can't do wrong and get away with it. Otherwise they will never learn Just like the man who has the felony he learned his lesson and now he is working an awesome job and he is a better person. She will also have learned from her wrong doings and grow to be a better person after, it might hurt her now but it will teach her a hard learned lesson in the future. You shouldn't have to suffer a loss because someone was upset and felt cheated when she went in on it knowing what to expect. It's her fault and you shouldn't be the one to suffer the consequenses of her immature childish actions.

Answer 10

1.5 mil is alot of money! I would, eventhough she has 2 children! Like you said, you do the crime, you do the time! However, you sound like a compassionate man, so I would sue her for millions, but settle if she was to make a formal public apology to all the lost clients and admitting that she lied about the rumors, hoping that they might come back. If she is unwilling to at least admit she was in the wrong and make a public apology, hit her where it hurts...her wallet!