Fired After Joking Around With a Co-Worker

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Illinois.
I'm a bartender for a corporation. I recently was terminated last Tuesday for joking around with a co-worker, where a customer overheard us and called into the restaurant and HR calling for my head. What was supposedly said out of my mouth was " I will punch you in the face" and " I will kill you" to a server that's a woman. The customer clearly took it out of context and I kept saying there was no malicious intent whatsoever. We were both joking around. I asked them on what grounds can you fire me for joking around with a co-worker and nothing being said directly to the customer? The GM said it falls under harrassment/sexual harrassment. I said those are completely false accusations. I said would like to talk to the owner and HR to fight for my job back especially since I have never been written up or done anything wrong here to warrant this.

The owner calls me on Friday we start talking and I apologize for being unprofessional but that is being blown out of context. He responds with I have created a hostile work environment which I clearly havent .He then says I have been warned before about this. Which I respond with no one has ever warned me of this, I would have to sign off on this. Then starts saying that I'm calling him a liar. I respond with I want to see the termination file and that I also have money I have to come pick up. He says a manager will follow up with both.

Two hours later calls me and says I understand you want to be in law enforcement is this why you're worried about what's on your record. I say yes. He says there will be nothing in the file that will be written poorly about you preventing that. Now I'm thinking they don't even have a file.

Calls me 15 minutes later and then says we can offer you a resignation letter to write saying you left on short notice and that there will be no record on you only the paper. Now I'm thinking isn't right. I tell him I'll call him back I have to think about this.

Need legal help and advice if I have a case or should pursue one or just do the letter??

The employer needs no reason to fire you. The employer did nothing wrong in this situation.

You haven't indicated that you're in a union. You haven't told us that you have an employment contract that restricts the ability of your employer to fire you. Absent the application of a contract or civil service laws, you're an at-will employee and your employer can choose to terminate your services for any reason not forbidden by law -- even if the reason is unfair.

Based solely on what is in your post, your employer is on very firm ground firing you. Nothing you have posted provides you with any grounds at all for legal action; unemployment is uncertain at best.

I'd have fired you too. "Joking around" or not, your "jokes" were completely unprofessional and your employer had a valid reason to fire you.

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Quoting Mr. Knowitall

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You haven't indicated that you're in a union. You haven't told us that you have an employment contract that restricts the ability of your employer to fire you. Absent the application of a contract or civil service laws, you're an at-will employee and your employer can choose to terminate your services for any reason not forbidden by law -- even if the reason is unfair.

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Not in a union. The other thing is others have been warned but I wasn't given that opportunity and I understand that I'm an at-will employee and they can terminate me but something doesn't seem right so was just asking for advice. So I'm guessing probably the resignation papers is the route to go?

Absolutely they were unprofessional I admitted to that to them, but she was not disciplined for her her saying I'll kick your ass. I've talked to other heads of other HR firms and they said termination should of never happened considering this was a complaint coming from a customer I had no interaction with instead with an employee. Suspension or probation would have been more logical.

I've been in HR or some aspect of it since 1979 and I disagree with the ones who say termination should not have happened. I'd have fired both of you, but you may rest assured that if you had worked for me you'd be filling out your unemployment claim today.

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Quoting Seacon04

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Not in a union. The other thing is others have been warned but I wasn't given that opportunity and I understand that I'm an at-will employee and they can terminate me but something doesn't seem right so was just asking for advice. So I'm guessing probably the resignation papers is the route to go?

Absolutely they were unprofessional I admitted to that to them, but she was not disciplined for her her saying I'll kick your ass. I've talked to other heads of other HR firms and they said termination should of never happened considering this was a complaint coming from a customer I had no interaction with instead with an employee. Suspension or probation would have been more logical.

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I feel there is a greater reason to fire you because it was a customer. A customer has no idea if you are joking. The costumer is the guy that is the source of company profits. You don't want to offend customers so you lose their business.

^^^This

Have to agree with the others. "heads of other HR firms" should know better than to second guess what your employer chose to do. Their opinion holds no legal weight nor are they the owner of this business nor are the customers their customers. While lesser discipline was possible, your employer is the one that gets to make that decision, whether logical or not. But at that complaint, you just became a liability to the employer.

And honestly are you sure your coworker didn't also complain? She could have and there is no reason that the employer (or your coworker) would have to tell you that. And I agree a customer complaint is just as bad if not worse than a co-worker. Because often co-workers won't speak up and allow it to happen when it shouldn't. And obviously the customer did get that you were "just joking". Just one more reason why I hate that excuse of "just joking". Be professional at work.

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Quoting Seacon04

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So I'm guessing probably the resignation papers is the route to go?

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No. If you want to get UI, do not fall for this trick. The odds of getting UI are pretty good. That customer that heard your comments won't be speaking to the UI people nor appearing at your UI hearing if you have to go that far. There is always the chance that the coworker might say something, but since that person wasn't responsible for telling your employer, then you can work with that.

A complaint from a customer can absolutely get you fired. If you interact with customers, even indirectly, you are the face of the company and anything you do that diminishes the company image can certainly lead to your dismissal. The other person may or may not have been disciplined. They don't have to share that information with you.

While I agree that if you want UI you shouldn't sign the letter, I'm not as secure as chyvan that UI is a slam dunk as long as you don't. The employer's testimony counts too; it doesn't have to be direct from the customer.

The thing is, you seem to believe the employer didn't have the right to fire you. They did. You didn't have any way to "fight for my job" as you put it. In an "at will" state, they can fire you any time they want to for just about any reason.

Your recourse is to file for unemployment benefits while looking for another job. Without previous warnings, though, in order to keep you from receiving unemployment benefits after you are fired, the employer must show that old valid misconduct reason to terminate you. And if it's a one time thing, they must show that you did something pretty awful that one time to give them valid misconduct grounds to fire you.

In order to keep you from being approved for unemployment while looking for another job, they have to show that you either quit your job by your own decision, which will usually disqualify you, and is the reason they'd like to have that letter of resignation from you, or that they had a valid misconduct reason to terminate you.

There are two categories of misconduct reasons to fire. The first one is gross misconduct, which means that while on the job you did something so nasty and inappropriate and wrong to do that any reasonable person would have KNOWN they were not supposed to do it on the job even one time. If you had slapped the co worker across the face, or cursed at her violently, or stolen money from the till, those kinds of things will be considered gross misconduct, and you can be fired, even without any prior warnings about doing it. But if it's something like "inappropriate comments to a co worker that are getting on her nerves" then it would be a good idea to have records of where the employee was warned and asked to change their behavior to make the case that they should not be approved for unemployment benefits, which will in the long run, cost the employer money. Whether you are approved to draw or not is decided by the agency, not the employer, and they listen to both sides of the issue about why you were fired.

When you file for unemployment, if there were no previous warnings, you just tell them this. Stress that you did not know your job was in any jeopardy, you did not intend to lose your job, and you would have changed any behavior you had been aware of that was causing anyone problems with your work.

But accept the fact that they wanted you gone, for any reason they wanted to they could fire you, and you need to move forward now and let this go, don't waste a lot of time proving you were right or trying to claim they didn't have any right to fire you or that you might have some legal protection or case against them regarding this termination. You don't.