Employee Says That Her Manager Wrote Her Up For 'Emotional Instability' — 'Is This Even Legal?'
Apparently, there are no tears allowed while on the job.
@gingerbren / TikTok A woman was surprised after she received a complaint from her boss due to her alleged behavior at work. According to her boss, the woman’s “emotional breakdowns” were interfering with her ability to work, and they decided to call her out on it.
The woman was written up at work due to her ‘emotional instability.’
In a TikTok video that has been viewed over 500,000 times, user @gingerbren, revealed the bizarre form that was given to her by her boss, informing her that her “emotional breakdowns” and “instability” were in violation of the rules at work. The woman, who works as a vet technician, could not believe the warning she had received. “Just got written up for ‘emotional instability,’” she wrote in the text overlay of the video. “Is this even legal?”
The woman did not specify what her reported “emotional breakdowns” at work entailed of.
Other users were also left baffled by the woman’s boss’s warning. “Are you a human or a robot?” one user commented. “They really wrote that on paper, huh?” another user wrote. Others shared their own experiences getting written up at work for similar reasons.
“I got written up while working at Starbucks because I was depressed and not smiling as much as I had before,” one user revealed. “My old job told me my coworker was getting her hours cut because ‘her new meds make her sad and if she can't smile she can't work here,’” another user wrote. “I got fired from Waffle House because I was ‘too emotional,’” another added.
However, there were others who believed that the reasons for the woman getting written up were valid and that her behavior could be disrupting the workplace. “If you are genuinely being disruptive this is very legal. The question is: are you being disruptive?” one user commented. “It's kinda important to keep your emotions under control [at work],” another user pointed out.
Receiving write-ups at work can happen from time to time to any employee.
According to Legal Reach, employers are allowed to write up their employees for any reason they see fit, as long as it is not discriminatory or retaliatory.
Reasons can include anything that employers believe negatively affects the overall workplace, such as excessive lateness or absenteeism, bullying among colleagues, inappropriate work attire, and so on. Write-ups serve as a warning to employees to make changes to their behavior at work. Generally, an employee can receive up to three write-ups before being terminated, although each company policy is different and it may depend on the nature of the write-ups.
Employees can legally protest write-ups if they believe that they were unfairly received.
If an employee feels as if they were wrongfully written up, they may be able to file a claim against their employer by consulting the help of an attorney and understanding their employee rights. Employees can also request a meeting with their supervisor or HR representative to discuss the matter more thoroughly before seeking legal action.
Unfortunately, the woman who originally posted the video will never get the opportunity to plead her case, unless she files for wrongful termination. In a follow-up video, she revealed that she was fired from her job after an unidentified person showed her original video to her employer.
“My own fault really but she said she would’ve never seen it without someone reporting it so which one of you did it?” the woman captioned her video.
While our emotions are what make us human and we are bound to lose control over them from time to time, you may want to alert your boss if you are feeling overwhelmed at work. If they are aware of your situation, they may be more understanding and may not write you up should you happen to lose your cool while on the job.
Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.