Employers: A Cautionary Tale of Negligent Retention in Business and at Work

As more details of Connecticut Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s failure to effectively investigate, intervene and stop the assault, threats of violence, harassment and abuse by her former chief of staff against subordinate staffers (which also included the former chief of staff briefly dating a subordinate staffer, then subsequently retaliating against that same subordinate) continue to emerge, a cautionary tale of negligent retention by Esty as the employer emerges as well.

More specifically, Esty’s former chief of staff:

• Allegedly punched his subordinate, who he had also dated in the past;
• Left a voicemail threatening to kill a subordinate (self-documentation of poor performance never ceases to amaze me);
• Allegedly engaged in other harassing behaviors;

You get the picture.

Esty’s compounding coup de grâce as the employer included:

• Allowing the former chief of staff to continue to work in the same office as the staffers he threatened during an investigation of his behavior;
• Taking 3 months to complete the investigation;
• Providing the former chief of staff $5k in severance; and
• Co-writing a letter of reference for the former chief of staff. (And yes, his subsequent employer potentially engaged in negligent hiring for failing to secure an accurate reference on the former chief of staff, which is probably why the former chief of staff no longer has that subsequent job as of last week).

Certainly, it was important to investigate the complaints from a due process standpoint. However, the voicemail threatening violence is grounds for immediate termination – no gray area of employer or HR interpretation there. That self-documented recording is more than enough documentation to support a more than 50% probability that most of, if not all of the claims against the former chief of staff were and are true.

From the American Bar Association website, negligent retention is defined as:

….an employer, during the course of employment, became aware of problems that indicate a lack of fitness for the position, that the unfitness was likely to cause the sort of harm incurred by the (complainant); and that the employer failed to take action.

How do you consistently take action to keep your employees safe and at the same time avoid negligent retention, in business and at work?