QUESTION
Do I have any legal rights against my employer for defamation?
Asked on Mar 23rd, 2014 on Labor and Employment - Illinois
More details to this question:
Recently another employee at my company was told to find a replacement for me as I was going to be fired soon. This employee went to a common friend of ours and told them I was going to be fired. This bit of information has since spread like wildfire around our circle of friends and other co workers. I feel completely unsafe with my job security and am completely embarrassed by what my friends and co workers now know about me. I have not approached my supervisor or HR department about this yet. I'm not sure what to do. I feel as though if I say something, I'm going to be fired on the spot. This particular incident happened 2 weeks ago and I have not been fired yet. Please help.
1 ANSWER
4 Awards
Telling other employees that you might be terminated is not by itself defamation. If they said you were about to be terminated for something like fraud, theft, or being under the influence (all of this being false), that would be defamation.
The employee telling others that you were about to be terminated, however, may be a violation of your privacy and HR would probably consider taking action against that employee who told other employees about this.
Whether you should tell HR about this depends on whether you feel making this complaint will hasten your termination, or if it will cause them to stop or at least postpone your termination if the company feels embarassed by this issue. You should probably meet with an attorney to review the facts in more detail and better evaluate your next step
Answered on Mar 24th, 2014 at 3:24 PM