25 RIGHT TO BORE

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MAN WINS RIGHT TO BE BORING AT WORK

A French court has ruled that a man fired from a consulting firm for not being “fun enough in the workplace” has the right to be as boring as he likes.

Cubik Partners, a French management consulting company in Paris, fired Mr. T—whose full name is not disclosed for privacy reasons—and argued that he was difficult to work with, was a poor listener, and was simply “boring.”

What the company meant, however, was that Mr. T didn’t go out with his colleagues enough after work, as part of the company’s “fun-based” approach to team building. The employee, on the other hand, stated that he simply refused to be forced to join in his team’s various extreme behaviors, such as drinking large quantities of alcohol and then sharing a bed with colleagues afterward.

After being fired by Cubik Partners on the grounds of “professional inadequacy,” Mr. T took the company to court, arguing that being fired for not being “fun enough” for his employer was illegal. After years of legal battles, a top French court ruled in favor of Mr. T.

In its decision, the court stated that the consulting company had no right to make anyone “forcibly participate in seminars and end-of-week parties that frequently ended up in excessive alcohol drinking, encouraged by colleagues.”

The court ruling also stated that Cubik Partners engaged in “humiliating practices regarding privacy such as playing childish sex games, being forced to share a bed with a colleague during seminars, using silly nicknames among team members, and hanging up embarrassing Photoshopped pictures in the office.”

In addition to having the legal right not to party, Mr. T is also entitled to a damage payment of USD$3,000. The employee, however, is demanding an extra USD$473,000 from his former employer. The court will rule that demand after an upcoming follow-up hearing.