I am sure everyone by now has heard about the NPR correspondent who expressed his feelings about being nervous when he sees Muslim people on an airplane. He did this on Fox News and was quickly fired for being a bigot. That is the short story of it and without going into the politics, subtext reads more like five year olds tantrum in a sandbox. The story ends with Juan Williams getting buckets of press coverage and a $2 million dollar contract to work for the sworn enemy of his former employer.  Good job Juan.

But what is not discussed in any great detail is how lucky Juan Williams was. Lucky in that NPR essentially did everything wrong that you could possibly do when firing someone. Even better yet they did most of it in front of a camera and with a microphone cranked up to full. Everywhere there are labor attorneys who would pawn their children to be representing this guy simply based on the extremely stupid comments made by the NPR CEO.

For the rest of us, there are some valuable lessons to remember from what we have witnessed. Most of us are "At-Will" employees. This means that our employer can toss us in the street because they don't like the color of our shoes. In fact they don't need a reason to tell us to hit the trail. Most companies do not fire people for no reason simply because it's too expensive to find replacements but rest assured that the moment you are not worth the effort to keep...you may find yourself unemployed. On the other hand you can also quit your job with or without a reason with no consequences as well. Such is the double edged sword of "At-Will". I don't know if Juan Williams had an employee contract and most likely he did and I would be sure it would stipulate that he could moonlight as a contributor to various news organizations....but for this comparison let's pretend he doesn't. He got fired and they don't really need a reason.

However.

Regardless of "At-Will" you cannot fire someone because they are Black, Old, Jewish, or any other protected class and that includes people with disabilities. So if you are, say, mentally handicapped you are protected from being fired because you are disabled. If you were fired because you were disabled your employer has violated the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA)which makes such behavior illegal.

So the fun point with Juan is that the CEO of NPR said publically that his views were best shared with his psychiatrist. Now if Juan is seeing a psychiatrist she has violated all kinds of laws in revealing a person's medical information but if he has not we find ourselves back in the stomping grounds of the ADA. If you are asking why? Welcome to your first class in HR 101. The ADA states that if you are treated as though you are disabled (i.e. mentally handicapped) then you are considered as such under the law. In other words, the moment NPR said Juan was crazy....he became crazy and therefore his craziness is protected by the ADA. (your government laws at work) In one simple sentence she relayed that part of his termination was based on her feeling that his views were nuts. Which violates the ADA and several other laws. When we add the defamation to his journalistic ethics and a few jabs at his performance history and you have one hell of a good pretext to sue NPR into oblivion. To her credit the NPR CEO has apologized but honestly that is like trying to un-ring a bell. The damage is done and frankly I am looking forward to the war that could commence between Juan Williams and NPR.

But for the rest of us unknowns in this world, when this happens we are not so fortunate. Companies make illegal firing mistakes all the time but rarely, if ever do they admit to doing it on TV. Most of the time there are nothing more than rumors and whispers. That makes proving your case almost impossible and even when you can...the costs are astronomical and it will take literally years.

The experience around suing your employer is never pleasant, mind boggling slow, and emotionally the equivalent of being beaten severely over and over again. What you see in Hollywood does not exist and even the most clear cut case which ends with buckets of money being given to some poor employee cannot erase the scars that the legal process inflicts on all involved.  If you ever find yourself thinking about suing your employer....have someone explain to you exactly what is in store for you because as I tell many people who ask my opinion it is more satisfying to simply go get a better job and let divine retribution take its course. I promise you...its more often than not a better path. 

You may think by suing your company you may with the courtroom lottery, but most of the time even the winners are more damaged coming out from the game than when they went in. For Juan Williams, he got a $2 million contract from Fox. Juan Williams got lucky.

 Copyright © 2010 Mike Baumgartner | HR | Consulting | Coach |  Human Resources | Search - CEO, Worklife Survival Center LLC