Revealing termination detail

[stadeusiak]

I was let go from my company on November 2, 2008. We have a rule, as most companies do, that the terms of an employees termination are not to be discussed to ANYONE, at any time. It was recently revealed to me that a store manager from another store was made aware of my termination and was talking about it to a fellow employee. She used slanderous terms and made character judgements to this employee about me, and I have never met nor worked for this person in my life. This may lead to me not being able to get another job. I need to know if there is anything that I can do about this.

 

[cbg]

Company policy is not law, and there is no law prohibiting anyone from talking about their own or someone else's termination.

She is permitted to make character judgements - that's her right under the First Amendment - and what most people consider slander, isn't. There is a GREAT deal of misunderstanding as to what is legally slanderous.

When and if you are refused a job and you can make a DIRECT correllation between anything UNTRUE that she said about you (as opposed to making an honest error, heard something that she misunderstood, had a differing opinion than yours, etc.) then you can investigate the possibility of legal action. But the burden of proof will be on you to show first, that she knowingly and deliberately LIED, and second, that but for those lies you would definitely have gotten the job.