OK, this question is based on a plotline from last night’s episode of Boston Public (excellent show, BTW ).
Here’s the setup: female teacher paddles students. There’s no law or rule against it, but principal asks her to stop anyway. She refuses. Then it comes out that she derives sexual pleasure from paddling students. She’s fired. She sues. She gets her job back.
Now, if I was the principal of that school and thus forced to hire her back, I would see to it that she never saw the inside of another classroom again. Give her an “administrative” job at the same pay, benefits, seniority, etc., but make it so that she essentially has no duties at all.
Now here’s the question: if your boss can’t or won’t fire you, but takes away all your duties and responsibilities and basically pays you to sit on your ass and not break anything, are you considered “fired”?
What you describe is fairly common practice in Japan with employees whom companies don’t want around anymore. The company takes away all the responsibility, but doesn’t fire you. Either you get so bored that you’ll quit or you’ll be out of everybody’s way.
As I see it, as long as I’m getting a check, I’m not fired.
Something similar happened to Isaac Asimov (no, not the paddling, you sickos! The “pseudo-firing”). When he ewas a professor at Columbia University, he was putting very little time towards research, spending that time instead on his writing. When the Dean called him on the carpet over this, he was quick to point out that he wasn’t sacrificing any of his teaching duties. The dean responded that the University couldn’t afford to pay him just for his teaching, so Asimov answered “Fine, then, don’t pay me”. “OK, then, as of next semester, you’re fired.” “No, you can’t fire me, I’ve got tenure. Just stop paying me.”
Eventually, a deal was worked out where Asimov neither got paid nor did any work for the school, but retained official affiliations and the title “Professor Emeritus”.
A buddy of mine had it even better. He was the manager of a field sales office, but the higherups at HQ couldn’t stand him, and likewise, so they banned him from the office.
Um, excuse me? Paycheck, company car, no responsibilities, unable to go to the office. It took them two months to break his contract.
We got a LOT of rafting in that summer.
I’m assuming he feels Bill Clinton’s lame-duck pain.
This is done, but it’s not quite the same. It’s a cheap way for companies to avoid actual layoffs (and layoff payments) or to get rid of troublesome employees - like union organizers. The group of employees are put in a windowless room, sitting at a desk with no work to do. They aren’t allowed to do anything - no books, magazines, busy work, etc. - a monitor checks up on them to make sure they aren’t “cheating”. No one is allowed to talk. You stay until you quit. This practice has been challenged in court several times by unions as inhumane and illegal.
You haven’t got the Asimov story quite right, Chronos. In 1958, Asimov decided that his writing was more important than his teaching (at Boston University). He had always done his fiction writing at home, but he had starting doing his science writing in his office. He considered that writing popular books on science was part of his job, but he was getting hassled about this. He went to the dean (or department chairman or somebody) and asked that he be relieved of his teaching duties but be allowed to continue to call himself associate professor, and he wouldn’t ask the university for any salary or office space. (He was already making more money from his writing than his teaching job.) Note that he already had tenure at this time, and he had done his share of research during his first few years of teaching, although he was never very good at it. The dean or department chairman or whoever didn’t like this, but eventually Asimov convinced the university to go along with this. (If someone at Boston University had threatened to fire him for writing instead of doing research in 1958, they would have had no case. According to the contracts at most universities, once you have tenure, you can only be fired for failure to teach, not for failing to do research.) Asimov retained the title of associate professor (not emeritus) and gave one lecture a year. Eventually he was made a full professor.
": if your boss can’t or won’t fire you, but takes away all your duties and
responsibilities and basically pays you to sit on your ass and not break anything, are you
considered “fired”?
No, this is quite common when a usa cop shoots someone or a cop does some questionable stuff, they might pay him but make him stay home. They have to be home during the same work hours. Same thing with teachers. Its happening in my city right now.
WAG - Then they would have a non-controversial reason [not counting paper clips properly, etc.] to fire you with documented instances of your misbehavior.
In reading the OP I get the impression that the teacher had a court order to get her job back - “She sues. She gets her job back.” I would be willing to bet that the court order had specific rulings about the responsibilities and duties that must accompany the reinstatement. Even if the duties were not spelled out in the settlement, I doubt the principal could get away with what Rasta suggests. Judges tend to take exception with someone who follows the letter of the ruling while ignoring the spirit.
).