Fired worker verbally abused for violating 'don't act like a —hole' policy • Iowa Capital Dispatch

A judge in the US state of Iowa has ruled against a company that fired a restaurant employee for using foul language, violating the company's “Don't act like an —hole” policy.

State records show Bridget Mays of Waterloo worked as a dishwasher for Thrive Together, a company that operates several restaurants nationwide, including Applebee's Grill & Bar. Mays worked at the Applebee's in Waterloo from October 2021 until July of this year, when she was laid off.

Thrive Together claimed that Mays reacted angrily and used a profanity when she arrived at work one day to find a pile of dirty dishes in the kitchen, including some on the floor. Mays was fired a few days later because the company claimed she had violated a formal, written policy titled “Don't act like a —hole,” with the descriptive word spelled out.

In the policy itself, the word was used 11 times to describe prohibited workplace behavior, according to government records.

Mays then filed a claim for unemployment benefits, which Thrive Together contested. This led to a hearing before Administrative Law Judge David Steen, who ruled in Mays' favor, citing the company's language in its policies.

“The employer fired (Mays) because of her tone and use of foul language,” Steen found. “The employer's own work rules, including one of those cited as potentially violated in this situation, contain numerous occurrences of a word generally considered obscene in the English language. This administrative law judge finds the employer's testimony that the plaintiff's tone and language created a hostile atmosphere for her co-workers to be lacking credibility.”

Other Iowa residents whose unemployment cases were recently decided by a judge include:

— Angela Schumacherwho worked as a full-time caregiver for Webster County until she was fired in June for documenting that she had been caring for a patient at home who was actually hospitalized at the time. An administrative law judge ruled that Schumacher was entitled to benefits because it was an “isolated case of miscalculation.” Recently, the state's Employment Law Appeals Board overturned that decision, saying that if the county had not noticed the falsification of records, it would have faced fraud charges.

— Emilio Buhrwho briefly worked at Dan Deery Motors in Waterloo from June 10 until he quit on June 29 due to harassment. According to the judge's findings in his unemployment case, the employer's computers contained offensive and inappropriate content, including information tabs with lewd names such as “Sex Time,” “Seven-Day Orgy,” “Flexible Penis” and other specific terms of a far more graphic nature. The information tabs were designed to separate tasks or data that workers regularly accessed to clock in, schedule their work hours or order replacement parts. In addition, workers were allowed to upload personal photos to the time clock program, and some employees had uploaded pornographic or offensive images – including one that Buhr described as a simulated sex act by Jesus.

“Buhr's decision to terminate his employment due to a work environment characterized by sexual harassment is undoubtedly valid grounds for termination,” Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Johnson ruled, adding that management knew about the content on the work computer and was aware that Buhr found it offensive and did nothing to correct the situation.

— Malorie Hallockwho worked full-time as an administrative specialist for Youth and Shelter Services until she was fired in July after she was found guilty of first-degree grand larceny in an embezzlement case related to her previous employment at Studio 65 Tattoos in Clear Lake, where she was accused of stealing $123,665 in cash over a 10-month period. The judge in Hallock's unemployment case ruled in her favor, finding that Youth and Shelter Services knew when she was hired that the charges were pending at the time and that she could be convicted later. Hallock received unemployment benefits, and the judge said the shelter could have chosen not to hire her and that Hallock committed “no misconduct” while working for the shelter.