The highest court in France has ruled that employees have a legal right to not be fun at work. What a quirky story, right? Feel free to make all the “congratulations to all the tax lawyers” jokes you want!
At least “not being fun” is how the media seem to be covering the case. Headlines surrounding the decision zero in on the “right to not be fun” and the “right to be boring,” which are both technically accurate in describing the court’s ruling to the extent the French court described the employee’s decision to eschew after-work happy hours as a matter of free expression.
But perhaps these headlines gloss over some very important details.
The man, identified in court documents as “Mr T” apparently pities the fools who like to enjoy the office. After joining Cubik Partners, a business consultancy, in 2011, Mr T was fired in 2015 for not joining in the workplace “fun.” Specifically, Mr T didn’t want any part of after work drinks and other team-building activities.
Or, to get a little more specific:
According to the Court of Cassation, the company’s “fun” values included regular obligatory social events that culminated in “excessive alcoholism encouraged by colleagues who made very large quantities of alcohol available,” as well as “practices pushed by colleagues involving promiscuity, bullying and incitement to various excesses.”
It’s not “excessive alcoholism” to attend events where large quantities of alcohol are available. But let’s put a pin in that one and consider...
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