Job Terminations and the Christian Conscience
A little over two decades ago, as a new arrival in this country, I was walking to work one morning when I saw an unusual sight. A young lady was hurrying away, in the opposite direction, hugging a cardboard box, tears unashamedly streaming down her cheeks. I mentioned this to my colleague when I reached the workplace and his reply was matter of fact: “Most likely she was fired.” He then went on to explain that such firings or job terminations generally happened at the start of the workday when the employee arrived at work oblivious of the cruel fate that awaited him or her. The supervisor would bluntly convey the fatal decision, and the sacked employee would be given fifteen minutes to clear his or her personal effects and leave the office.
Naively, I asked if the employee would not be given an opportunity to present his or her side of the matter and if an inquiry would not be held to arrive at the truth of the matter. That is when I learned of the ‘employment at will’ clause that forms part of almost all hiring agreements in this country. The employer does not have to establish just cause for termination and this allows the employer to fire an employee peremptorily. No warnings. No show cause notices. No opportunity to explain or defend. No appeal. No inquiry. No second chances. Summary dismissal without any kind of recourse is the only result.
Again, naively, I wondered aloud about justice and fair play and of being considered innocent until proven guilty. At this point my friend had looked distinctly uneasy. “Can’t the fired employee go to the courts?” I had asked. The answer was that the ‘at will’ clause in the agreement that the employee had signed precluded that. They had waived any legal protection when they signed an agreement that included that clause. My colleague’s explanation about long-drawn-out court cases and high costs that would result in the absence of this condition did not cut any ice. I thought the dice was loaded unfairly in favor of the company. I thought this an anomaly in a country that prides itself in justice and fairness to all, especially the common man.
To have this sword of Damocles hang over an employee’s head and to give the supervisor draconian powers was, I thought – and still think – both unjust and unfair. Some years later came the financial crisis and the need to downsize the complement of staff. Not surprisingly, the supervisor used this opportunity to settle personal scores. One after the other, the hapless employees were summoned to the office of human resources and served their terminations. There was mild consternation in the office for a little while before business resumed as usual.
It is the same weapon that has been used this time. The only difference being that instead of in isolated cases, this time it has been used wholesale – en masse. The shock this time is not within a mere department or even organization but across a much wider area. Although the magnitude is admittedly on a much larger scale, the injustice meted out in other cases to individual employees by tyrant supervisors is no less significant. There are nations which do not make any claims to justice being their strong suit, but yet they uphold the rights of employees to a fair hearing and to a punishment that is commensurate with the breach or error the employee has been proven (not merely alleged) to be guilty of.
What is even more shocking is that faith-based organizations have included the very same vile clause in their employment agreements and use their powers just as flagrantly as do their secular counterparts. Where then is the difference? If salt has lost its savor what good is it? The same organizations that preach justice, fairness, and equity trample on their employees with impunity and with total disregard for the very same principles they avowedly profess. They sermonize about mercy and kindness but, disregarding prudence and caution, hasten to cast the first stone. They totally disregard what their scriptures say about how allegations or complaints against a fellow worker are to be handled. They chant “forgive us our trespasses” and conveniently forgets what follows.
These same organizations send out mailers and emails tugging at the heartstrings of donors exhorting them to show mercy towards the unfortunate victims of vile diseases and social injustices, but they themselves show no mercy at all, thus making their position more repugnant and repulsive than those they are seeking to save. Isn’t forsaking due process and mercy, and being hard and unforgiving, the highest form of hypocrisy?
Some Christian organizations take it even a step further, if that were possible. During war times it is not uncommon for cruel victors to seize the property of those that are perceived as enemies. When it comes to involuntary separations, decent organizations pay the terminated employee all that they are due and then some in the form of gratuity at the rate of two-weeks’ or a month’s wages for each completed year of service to tide them over till they find new employment. Thankfully, some faith-based organizations also do that.
But surprising as it may seem, there are a few other faith-based organizations that not only do not pay any gratuity, but also literally rob the terminated employee. Hard to believe but true. These organizations do so by illegally withholding payment of the vacation hours earned by the employee which are rightfully theirs. During devotions they preach chapter and verse that a laborer is worthy of his wages and then proceed to confiscate what the employee has earned with the sweat of his or her brow. The hard-earned monetary equivalent of the vacation hours which they are now precluded from utilizing because of the abrupt termination is misappropriated by the organization. What is even more repugnant is the fact that they fail to see the injustice of this act even after it has been pointed out.
This is a sorrowful state of affairs. In the present turbulent time, it is of utmost necessity that a higher road is chosen as an example to others. We need courageous organizational leaders to follow their conscience, their heart, and their faith to do what is right – not what is expedient or what they can get away with.
One can only hope that the hearts of leaders will be opened to see that an unjust scale is an abomination and that they choose instead to act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly.