Oracle Tips by Burleson

Ensure a Tolerable Working Environment

A disgruntled or aggrieved employee may take advantage of the constructive discharge doctrine to sue an employer. Under constructive discharge, the employer is alleged to have created an intolerable working environment and refused to address the underlying issues.

An intolerable working environment for computer professionals can be related to many factors such as unreasonable work-hours, a harassing environment, unethical practices, overbearing work demands, physical assaults, etc. A constructive discharge case typically requires more than a couple of occurrences of intolerable working conditions to support such a claim. However, exceptions to this rule have been made when the misconduct is of a severe nature. 

Constructive discharge may only be established based on either of the following conditions:

• An employee has been subjected to an intolerable working environment that any reasonable employee would be compelled to resign from their job position, given that the employer was provided a minimum of 15 days notice that the employee intends to resign because of the work environment and the employer does not address the issues. 

• Unacceptable behavior by the employer or a representative of the employer directed at the employee including any form of harassment, discrimination, acts of violence, and so forth that would compel the employee to resign.

Employers should not condone any conditions that employees may find intolerable or hostile, and should work diligently to prevent these circumstances from occurring and eliminate any existing conditions immediately.

The above book excerpt is from:

You're Fired! Firing Computer Professionals

The IT manager Guide for Terminating "With Cause"

ISBN 0-9744486-4-8

Robert Papaj 

http://www.rampant-books.com/book_2005_1_firing.htm