Is what my mom's boss did legal?

My mom just got her annual work evaluation, and she is very upset because her boss specifically mentioned the suicide of one of my mom's friends, a non-company employee who was staffed at my mom's work via a staffing agaency. Anyway, said friend was having trouble finding permanent work, and had mentioned to a couple of people that he really wished my mom would hurry up and finish the evaluation so he could put it in his resume. Things ended up going sour for him, though, and he commited suicide shortly after. Anyway, to make a long story short, Mom's evaluation now states that her lateness in completing the OTHER evaluation was a partial contributor to a co-worker's suicide....naturally, she is DEVASTATED that she is being pointed out as a contributing factor and possiblyy has some guilty feelings of her own. As it is, though, it was actually MY MOM'S BOSS who was causing this co-worker far more stress than my mother was, which I know for sure because he was a very good friend of

mine and had told me that on repeated occasions.

What, if anything, can we do about her evaluation? She doesn't deserve to have this on there, but I don't know if we can get it taken off or not.

It depends upon the rules. I don't know what state you are in, what company your mom works for, whether or not it is union, etc.

At my company, should my boss try to pull that shi**, I can file a grievance and contact my union. He would never get away with it. Blaming a suicide on another worker is so out of line in any way shape or form.

Contact the union, the labor board, possibly human resource. I hope your mom didn't sign the evaluation. If so, hopefully it held the standard disclaimer that signing does not constitute agreement. File a rebuttal and request to delete asap!

contact her HR or EEOC

You are her child and it is natural that you want to defend her, and now she isn't to blame for the suicide, however, she should have completed the evaluation sooner... What he did is legal, there is no action that you can take against him.

Does her eval affect her pay? If so then you can get a lawyer and take the company to court for lost wages and making false statements. The person that wrote the eval has no idea whether the lateness on your mothers part for doing the person eval had any impact on that persons suicide.

Hell it might be worth going to court with them for that reason alone.


Nike -You are wrong. The vcompany is specifically blaming her for contributing to this persons suicide. Meaning that they think she is the cause of it. Thats wrong since they do not have any idea why the person committed suicide. From what we understand of the facts this person had what they thought was a rough life. One late paper isn't going to cause a person to take their life now is it..........

Your mom should consult an attorney. This is highly improper.

Go above her boss & keep going up the ladder until she gets somthing done. No way she should be held accountable for another persons state of mind.

I hope your mom didn't sign the evaluation. She has the right to contest it. She also needs to discuss this with her supervisor and explain that stating that she was "a patial contributor" to a suicide in totally inappropriate. Your mom has no responsibility for the mental stability of others, good friend or not.
Your mom could - if her employer won't help with the follow through - go to the labor board and file a complaint.

The suicide was not your mom's fault. This person made a decision and thats all there was to it. If the evaluation was truley that important to get done quickly, the person that commited suiside should have gone to your mom's supervisor and complained or asked if someone else could complete the evaluation.

If anything it's a Libel or possibly Slander case. I don't see how it can be a employment issue unless she was fired or demoted because of it.

you always have the right to appeal and append an evaluation; she needs to visit HR

Evals should be pretty nuts and bolts, but we don't really know the facts here, only what a third party with obvious interest in the matter claims.

If the eval says "Mom was late with x's eval. X subsequently committed suicide, leaving a note referring to the late eval", that seems pretty factual to me, although unnecessary IMHO unless the company has a history of folks committing suicide over work related issues and they are trying to do something about it.

Leave the company and get a new job. If she is a good employee this will hurt her boss and the company.

I have always strove to be so valuable that I could not be let go or thought poorly of. I once had an idiot for a boss who tried to write me up, I told him if he did I would quit and walked out of his office. 5 minutes later he came into my office and tore it up. Another time I had a boss write me up and a month later I was working for the competition. A VP called me to find out why I had left and I told him I felt I had been unfairly written up and I didn't want to work for a company that would do that to me. He begged me to come back....

Moral of the story is if you produce more then they pay you then you hold all the cards and can always find a new job. Of course if you are not an over achiever and merely produce average work or less then you just have to take what you get.