Stressed-out chef threw dishes, vulgar language at staff
This instalment of You Make the Call involves a chef who lost his temper with co-workers in the pressure cooker of the kitchen.
James Poulos, 59, worked in sales and food services for Toronto and Region Conservation For The Living City (TCRA), first as a part-time bartender in 2003 and later a full-time cook. In December 2007, the senior manager asked Poulos to work as a chef to prepare 255 turkey dinners for an event at a restaurant TCRA operated on Dec. 23. The executive chef was on vacation so Poulos would be responsible for everything. Though he had been working long hours and was tired, Poulos accepted the job.
Poulos had two kitchen assistants that day but he soon found they weren’t doing anything productive. One, who was a new employee, appeared to be intoxicated and was getting in the way. The other, who was both a cook and a dishwasher, refused to help prepare the meals. As a result, Poulos had to prepare all 255 meals himself.
The pressure of the job, the heat of the kitchen and his frustration with the assistants boiled over and began shouting and swearing at them.
He also was irritable with the servers and at one point threw dishes in the sink near one of the assistants. When the supervisor heard of this behaviour, she came to tell him to go home. When she did so, he was holding a knife as he had just finished cutting a cheesecake. The supervisor felt nervous for her safety.
The TCRA’s HR department and management were informed of Poulos’ behaviour and felt he had violated its code of conduct, which had been distributed to all employees. The code defined misconduct as harassment of other employees or recklessness that endangered other employees. The code also said misconduct would lead to disciplinary action, including potential termination without notice.
The TCRA felt Poulos’ misconduct, which included harassment of kitchen and wait staff, threatening behaviour while he had knives and harsh language, was just cause for termination, particularly since he had a previous incident where he lost his temper with a server and used foul language. On Jan. 22, 2008, Poulos was fired.
You Make the Call
Was the misconduct of Poulos just cause for dismissal?
OR
Was summary dismissal too harsh?
IF YOU SAID dismissal was too harsh, you’re right. The court found the TCRA did not have just cause for dismissal for two main reasons. Firstly, the circumstances in the restaurant that night was a “significant contributing factor” to Poulos’ state of mind. Poulos had been working long hours and had been asked to work in a pressure situation with the executive chef away. The staff he was given were of no help to him and he had no one to turn to when things got hairy. In addition, conditions in the kitchen were hot, contributing to the stress.
Secondly, the TCRA came to the decision to terminate Poulos without interviewing him and getting his side of the story. In fact, its own code of conduct indicated that when an employee is accused of misconduct, it must conduct a “full and fair” investigation.
The court found the previous incident with the server was not a factor in Poulos’ termination as he had not been disciplined for it because the investigation was inconclusive as to fault.
The court found Poulos was entitled to one months’ notice of termination, which was equal to $2,045.29, based on his 2007 salary. It also found the TCRA’s failure to get his side of the story in its investigation amounted to “unduly insensitive” and unfair conduct in the course of his dismissal, which caused mental distress beyond that normally associated with losing a job. For this bad-faith conduct, the court ordered the TCRA to pay an additional $1,000.
For more information see:
