Public Humiliation As a Punishment

[jevans1895]

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Florida

My question pertains to the use of public humiliation as a punishment. A supervisor at the office i work at makes people that forget to lock their computers to go in front of the work group and do an embarrassing dance. My questions are, is this a legal practice as work force discipline? I know of people in my work group that have been diagnosed, on medication, and have made known they have anxiety issues, does that factor in at all, and lastly if in being forced to do such an act caused an anxiety attack that required medical attention, is there any liability at that point?

[jk]

yes, they can do that. If you don't want to do it, you can accept whatever other penalty they choose. I'm thinking firing would be high on the list of alternative punishments.

as to anybody with medical issues: if they qualify for accommodation under the ADA they could be excused from the demand. Of course it is likely that other alternative punishment might be offered.

[aaron]

Ever been to a chain restaurant on somebody's birthday? In half of them, public humiliation isn't a punishment - it's a job duty.

[falseaccusationvictim]

I don't think that's an appropriate punishment, but I wouldn't complain if the alternative if termination or some kind of a probation at work. I wouldn't mind having a lax boss like that.

[cbg]

As long as the employer does not mess with the employee's pay, there are few if any laws dictating what an employer may or may not do with regards to disciplining an employee.

And with all due respect to jk, I'm not sure how the ADA would figure into this. The ADA does not require an employer to accept behavior in a disabled employee that they would not accept in a non-disabled employee. I'm not sure that they would consider it a reasonable accomodation that the employer should be required to (a) allow the disabled employee to forget a task that all other employees are required to do or (b) single the disabled employee out for different treatment than other employees get because MAYBE if they had to do something uncomfortable it MIGHT trigger an anxiety attack. I will grant you, it's a weird requirement. But I'll bet the employee never forgets again.

If the employee is that concerned about it, they should remember to lock their computers.

[jk]

And with all due respect to jk, I'm not sure how the ADA would figure into this. The ADA does not require an employer to accept behavior in a disabled employee that they would not accept in a non-disabled employee. I'm not sure that they would consider it a reasonable accomodation that the employer should be required to (a) allow the disabled employee to forget a task that all other employees are required to do or (b) single the disabled employee out for different treatment than other employees get because MAYBE if they had to do something uncomfortable it MIGHT trigger an anxiety attack. I will grant you, it's a weird requirement. But I'll bet the employee never forgets again..

if the employee has an anxiety issue and the accommodation would be to assist them to avoid situations that might trigger an attack, I would believe it would allow them to be excused from the activity. The punishment has nothing to do with their actual performance of their job so being relieved of the requirement could easily be seen as a valid accommodation imo.


by no means was I suggesting the employee would be exempt from the requirement to lock down their computer or even some other form of punitive action.

and personally, unless the overall atmosphere at this employer is one where this type of activity is the norm, I see it as nothing more than a juvenile boss with control issues. Now, I can imagine places where something like this wouldn't be out of place at all and as such, I would not see anything wrong with it in general.