Nasty Attitude to Co-Worker, Naughty Word in Web Comment Cost 2 Their Jobs
A hearing officer had discretion to terminate an 11-year government civil service employee over her obnoxious treatment of a co-worker, a New York appeals court has ruled.
The fired woman, Penny Sindoni, was an organizer of the “I Hate Teena” club directed at a disliked fellow Tioga County Health Department employee, according to testimony in the underlying administrative proceeding. She also allegedly kept a log of her co-worker’s late arrivals and early departures and encouraged other employees to monitor the woman’s whereabouts, too, reports the New York Law Journal.
Sindoni’s counsel argued that she was unfairly singled out for severe discipline, perhaps due to her role as a union steward, while the five other participants received punishments ranging from a letter of reprimand to a one-month suspension. Before her termination last year following the hearing officer’s ruling, Sindoni made about $30,000 a year as a senior typist.
But the Appellate Division, 3rd Department, unanimously held in a 4-0 decision that the hearing officer had a basis to punish Sindoni more severely, relying on factors including her leading role and lack of remorse, the legal publication recounts. Thus, although noting that another hearing officer might have reached a different conclusion, the appellate panel deferred to the hearing officer’s evaluation of the case.
Sindoni’s lawyer says she may appeal to the state’s top court.
Meanwhile, in a situation that has ignited controversy among readers of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, another worker is reportedly jobless after the school at which he was employed was alerted about a comment containing a vulgar word posted from a school computer on the Post-Dispatch Talk of the Day blog. The blog’s editor alerted the school after noticing in an e-mail alert that the comment came from an IP address there.
According to the Post-Dispatch’s terms of use, “obscenity” by commenters is forbidden (as well as rudeness directed to another individual), and may be punished by removal of offending material or even elimination of comment privileges. However, the rules do not explicitly say that an offending e-mail may be sent to the individual’s employer.
The unidentified school employee resigned when confronted with the e-mail, according to the Post-Dispatch.
