I was terminated today from my job for violating company policy with regard to inappropriate comments.

Facts:

I was a co-manager at a store. One day, another co-manager, the store manager and I were talking. There were no subordinates around. The other co-manager, a gay male, who is comfortable with his sexuality said "Honey, you can ask me anything. I am an open book." Because of his loudness and high pitched sounds he would make in the store, I asked him " I wonder what kind of sounds you make when you are having sex." As soon as I asked that, he laughed and said no one makes me blush but you did. The next day after thinking about it, I apologized to him. He said don't worry about it. He even made reference to putting pictures of himself up on his facebook page of him dressed as a woman.

Two days later (Sunday), the manager said I should review the company policy on sexual harassment and said the matter had been brought to the attention of the district manager. Five days later, today, I was terminated.

Although I recognize my comment to him was inappropriate, I find termination to be unwarranted. There was no counseling, no written warning, no required class to take prior to termination.

Any thoughts on if my termination was an appropriate response to my comment?

In general, most employees are considered at-will and can be terminated immediately for any reason, or no reason at all, unless there is a written employment contract in place specifying that the employee can only be terminated for cause. Sometimes "cause" is defined, sometimes not, but generally would include circumstances such as failure to meet the job qualifications, misconduct, etc. However, it is illegal to deny employment on the basis of a protected class (like race, gender, religious beliefs, etc.)

I suggest you contact an attorney to determine your legal options. You can find an attorney through the locator service on LawInfo’s home page at: http://www.lawinfo.com/.

You can also browse through the information in LawInfo’s Free Legal Resource Center here: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html.