A top French court has ruled that you cannot fire an employee on the grounds that he isn’t “fun” enough and won’t partake in work drinks and team-building activities, in what could be a landmark decision.
Mr T, who has not been named, was a senior adviser for Cubik Partners, a Parisian management consultancy and training company that promises to “make management more humanist again while durably improving performance”.
The group said it manages to keep operational excellence training from becoming too dry and boring by applying a “fun and pro” approach.
In that spirit, it organised a host of social events for staff to bolster team spirit.
When Mr T refused to take part in these, the company – which also accused the ex-employee of being square and boring, difficult to work with and a poor listener – decided to fire him in 2015 on the grounds of “professional inadequacy” and because he lacked the party spirit it was seeking to promote.