Another Case of Workplace Defecation

Imagine having a supervisor who defecates in a sandwich bag and puts it in your lunch box. An employee named Bill Bailey was fired for insubordination. In fact, he went out of his way to avoid his supervisor, Aaron English—and in the process, he did not submit to direct supervision.

The back story? English had a long running reputation of pranking his co-workers. English admitted in a legal proceeding that he shot workers with a “potato gun” made out of PVC pipe, and detonated pipe bombs very close to his workers. Some of the bombs were set to explode when his co-workers got into a work truck and turned the ignition switch on.

Bailey testified that in one instance, a bomb exploded with enough force to buckle the hood of a truck, and the explosion damaged his right ear.

The most offensive prank was pooping in bags and sneaking the “joke” into employee lunch boxes. Bailey was fired shortly after he injured his back at work. At that point, his employer argued that Bailey caused his own termination, and moved to deny worker compensation benefits to Bailey.

Ruling for the employee, the administrative law judge said:  “Considering the totality of the evidence, the ALJ  finds that Claimant did not precipitate the employment termination by a volitional act, which he would reasonably expect to result in the loss of employment. This finding is supported by Employer’s … tolerance of far more egregious behavior from other employees.”

The news article is reported in Grand Junction Colorado’s Daily Sentinel, here.

Thanks to my former student, JA, who brought this news to my attention. And thanks to my former student, GD, for bringing a workplace defecation case to my attention in this matter: here.