Swearing At Your Boss

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you told one of your employer’s customers to go “shove it”? Well, here’s an interesting little case where someone did precisely that!

On July 23, 1996, the New Brunswick Publishing Co. Ltd., publisher of the Telegraph-Journal and the Times-Globe newspapers in Saint John, N.B. fired its executive sports editor, William J. Donovan without notice. At the time he was fired Mr. Donovan was 57 years old and had worked for the papers for 36 years. So, why was Mr. Donovan fired? For two reasons, only one of which we will focus on. The company said that he was fired for being insolent and insubordinate when he left a questionable message with the President of the Saint John Flames hockey team. Apparently Mr. Donovan had not been invited to a Flames’ reception and news conference that he had expected to attend. This upset Mr. Donovan who then left a message that the president of the Flames could take his invitation and “shove it”. Mr. Donovan did not think that he also used the “f word” as the defendant’s counsel put it. Regardless, the defendant was sufficiently miffed by that message that it summarily dismissed Mr. Donovan without notice. Mr. Donovan sued for damages. The Court was then required to determine whether the “shove it” message was sufficient reason for dismissal. If it did, then Mr. Donovan would not have recovered any damages.

In attempting to establish whether delivering the offending message amounted to just cause for dismissal, the Court referred to a dictionary specializing in slang and euphemisms. There it found that the phrase “shove it” was in fact considered a slang phrase. The Court also considered a 1993 New Brunswick case in which similar words with the same intent were found to be criminal in nature. The Court in Mr. Donovan’s case stated that the words were “intensely rude and extremely unprofessional”. That aside, the Court also found that in all of his 36 years at the defendant’s company, Mr. Donovan had never once conducted himself similarly. The Court held that this single incident of insolence (and the Court did find this to be insolence) did not justify summary dismissal without notice or pay in lieu of notice. The Court found in favor of the plaintiff and awarded him 18 months of lost wages and pension entitlements.

But it gets worse. Not being one to “let a sleeping dog lie”, the defendant appealed the trial decision with respect to the amount of damages. Rising to the occasion, Mr. Donovan cross-appealed seeking the equivalent of 36 months of notice. The Court of Appeal of New Brunswick accepted the trial judge’s decision with respect to liability. It then held that there was no longer a ceiling of 18 months for damages in wrongful dismissal cases. The Court carefully analyzed the facts: Mr. Donovan’s age, his 36 years of unblemished service, his senior position with the paper, and the fact that reasonable amount of notice is designed to give an employee a fair opportunity to obtain similar or comparable re-employment. The Court held that Mr. Donovan was entitled to 28 months of notice less all amounts earned during the notice period. Mr. Donovan eventually found alternative employment one year later but at a lower salary. The Court stated he was fortunate in finding another position otherwise it “might well have considered a longer period of notice for this skilled 36 year veteran of the newspaper business.”

While I would never suggest that anyone tell their employer or customers to “shove it” as tempting at this is at times, it seems that if you do it only once in your career you might get away with it. But I wouldn’t want to test the theory, just the same.

If you have been fired for alleging swearing at your boss, please call me. There may be something we can do for you.