I was fired because of an email joke I sent to co-workers?

Question

My company was just bought by another company. We were given 60 day notice that our jobs were going to be elimintated. We were promised a 6 month severence. The top guy @ this new company (CEO) is a bully and manages by belittling everyone. He has a GOD-complex. All the admins have been sending emails back and forth about the attitude of these people. We have also been sending jokes back and forth forever. I send an email (powerpoint) with demotivational pictures (opposite of motivational) pics. Saying these were being shipped from the CEO and we would all get these for our department... hehe. I was brought in to the HR office and told that I was being fired because of it. Before this happened, I have always been an exceptional employee, great reviews and liked by everyone including the previous management team. No one else has been fired for emailing jokes. Can I sue that company for singling me out and firing me? Any thoughts would be appreciated! Thanks!!! : )

Answer 1

Not sure you can, your email was seen, maybe others were not.

However it does seem as if you should have received a warning, so I would suggest you talk to the Labor Board and see if they can do anything to help you.

Answer 2

No you can't sue the company. A job is a privilege not a right. While the new owners are pains in the you know what they have every right to fire you for whatever reason they can dream up. It could be they don't like the color of the socks that you are wearing or in your case because you sent an email. Secondly they gave you 60 days notice that your jobs were being eliminated anyways so what is the big deal. You get a head start on your co-workers finding a new job.

Answer 3

I just had a seminar at work for sexual harassment and the like.What you did was exactly what they told us we could be fired for.In the workplace freedom of speech and expression are not allowed and if something you do be it a picture or e-mail or verbal joke offends just one person you can be terminated immediately.Sorry bout your job man that sucks I've done the same just never been caught i guess the IT people at your work must really be watching what's going on at your company unlike mine.Just remember you have no privacy what so ever at the workplace that includes e-mails and such.Good luck friend.And you are right about the singling out part everyone who received and forwarded the e-mail should also be fired.Only if they opened it and deleted it would they not risk termination.

Answer 4

Yes you can get fired for emails and many many do. You would think that as long as emailing has been in the corporate environments and the warnings that have been given out, that people would figure it out. It may have been your negative attitude towards the new management that in reality got you fired, but you walked right into their trap. My advise is to sign up for unemployment, look for another job and stay out of the office politics.

Answer 5

When new management takes over a company, they review the personnel records of the employees and decide who they want to keep and who they want to get rid of. They probably already knew that they were going to get rid of you and used the email incident as a convenient excuse to fire you

Answer 6

technically, you probably could get fired legally because of this, (using email for inappropriate use, using email for things that aren't work-related, wasting time).

If you went to court, and the defense says that you were fired because of using email for inappropriate use, using email for things that aren't work-related, wasting time, and they say this is seen as improper conduct that could be grounds for termination as outlined in the employee handbook, or whatever,
and the judge asks, "Did you send emails to other employees that were not work-related in nature?"

what are you going to say? If you say no, the will know you are lying because of the email evidence which I'm sure they have. And the fact you lie in court will cause you to lose, on the basis that if you lie about this, you will lie about anything, which makes anything you say questionable to the judge, and he rules for the defense and you lose the case.

If you admit you sent the emails, that shows you broke the employee conduct code, which is grounds for termination legally, in which case you lose the case.

They probably know this, and this is one way for them to get out of paying you the 6 month severence pay, thus saving them that much more $$$.
Under normal circumstances, you probably would have gotten a talking-to, but they are probably on a drive to get rid of as many people as they can to save $$$ by not having to pay the 6-month severence pay to fired employees.

Answer 7

In with a new company, you really need to learn the do's and don't's right off the bat or become a statistic. Sounds to me like you just became one of those statistics.

Answer 8

Were you fired quoting your email joke as the specific reason? I, myself, do not think that an employee should be using company's time and resources to full around equating to non-productive time.

Answer 9

but, first did the pics have anything bad in them like weapons or something? and if yeah than(sorry) they should have fired u.

but if it was a pic of something harmless or in some way funny by how it looked and the typed out joke was not using profanity. than sue the company, it was just a joke.

hope i helped.

Answer 10

Now you know better next time. Sometimes it is better to keep your opinions to yourself. Sounds like you cut your nose off to spite your face. Not much you can do. but update your resume and start looking for a new job.