The head of HR fired this person for watching movies at work

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I am currently being sued by an employee that I supervised (I am middle management).

The head of HR fired this person for watching movies at work. I was the "witness" to the firing. The person has sued the company and MYSELF personally! I was shocked and amazed that I and my spouse could be personally named in the suit! I was acting for the company. Had nothing to do with me personally. In fact, I really did not even know the person at all! Luckily, my company has agreed to hire a lawyer to represent me and the HR director; in addition to the lawyer that represents the company. This is not quite the situation that the insurance covers but this is important information to know if you are in management. Document, document and then document some more! Oh yeah, dont have any assets in your own name.

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Specializes in med surg, homecare.

where would you document that you saw someone watching movies at whatever time and place? I can only think of an incident report or similar form. It's very odd that legally they can even name you (and your spouse?) and the legal system accepts that! It's craziness, hang in there. :uhoh3:

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The employee was terminated once the RN wrote a complaint and described the TV watching. She was terminated immediately for direct violation of policy of NO TV watching by any shift; especially nights. There were warnings, signed notices that all employees were advised NO TV allowed and yet it went on. Anyway, YES you and your spouse can be personally sued when you are acting on behalf of your company while performing your job duties. There are lawyers that will take any case and sue with the hope that the company will pay her rather than pay for defense lawyers. It is silly but true. Plus the gal suing has no money so we will never see a dime back from her if we went after her for damages! Total nonsense. I want to warn all the people where she currently works that she will sue you for anything! Here is a scenario: She has a headache and is sooooo miserable at work. You, offer her a tylenol from your purse. She later tells the boss that you were offering "pts drugs to her". No joke- she did this too! She said it made her mentally unsteady that the RN was offering her "prescription drugs". Lesson here is keep quiet, mind your own business, dont even joke about anything on the job and certainly dont offer anybody tylenol from your bag while at work!

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I am so sorry you are going through this. This is just another example of someone trying to make a quick dime at others expense. Hopefully this won't actually make it to court. Good luck!

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And pick up personal malpractice. It's cheap.

http://www.nso.com

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Specializes in Management, Emergency, Psych, Med Surg.

They name everyone they can when they bring a suit but it probably won't amount to much. But just in case, do yourself a favor an put your finances in order and get them out of your name. Does your spouse work for the same company? If not, place the assets in his/her name. Remember, they cannot take your primary dwelling and they cannot take your car. But they can take other assets, so move them into someone else's name. I would fire someone for watching TV. I am not paying these people to watch TV.

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Specializes in NICU, Post-partum.

Here is what you do:

Take your husband, go out to dinner, get a good bottle of wine and LAUGH about it.

If someone was watching movies at work...that means that they were not taking care of patients.

They can FILE anything that they want...they probably didn't bother to tell their attorney the real reason they lost their job.

It will come out in court...if it even gets that far.

Seriously, do not lose one ounce of sleep over this.

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