File this one under bad judgment. In a decision to be released on March 22, the Connecticut Appellate Court found that being rude, insulting and obnoxious to your boss is sufficient misconduct to disqualify an employee from collecting unemployment when he gets fired. In Joseph v. Administrator, Unemployment Compensation, the employer discharged the employee, an accountant, "immediately after he sent his supervisor two highly insulting and demeaning e-mail messages questioning her accounting and supervisory abilities." This wasn't the first time the employee had been insulting and demeaning; he previously had accused co-workers and a former supervisor of both incompetence and some unspecified "fraud." Unemployment denied his claim for benefits, in part because his offensive e-mails were not spontaneous, during a heated discussion, but were a deliberate attempt to undermine his supervisor. The Appellate Court agreed, finding that, because the e-mails insulted his supervisor personally and undermined her supervisory authority, his actions rose to the level of willful misconduct in the course of employment.
You would think it's kind of obvious, that being an obnoxious jerk towards your boss is a good way to get yourself fired. Could the employer have done something short of firing him? Of course they could. But the important point is that they were not required to do so. So remember, my grandmother's advice (if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all) applies with the force of law in the workplace.
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