These two cases are not from the U.S.A. But they have some good lessons for U.S. employers.

Case One: "C'est cool d'être ringard." (English translation: "It's hip to be square.") A court in Paris, France, has ordered an employer to pay its former employee (terminated in 2015 for "professional inadequacy") the U.S. equivalent of $3,154.82, with the possibility of a further recovery of up to the U.S. equivalent of almost $500,000. The former employee, identified only as "Mr. T," alleged that his employer terminated him because he was too boring.

Specifically, the employer required Monsieur T to participate in team-building exercises that included "excessive alcohol intake" and sharing beds with co-workers. According to the court, "the company engaged in 'humiliating and intrusive practices regarding privacy such as simulated sexual acts, the obligation to share a bed with a colleague during seminars, the use of nicknames to designate people and hanging up deformed and made-up photos in offices."

Sounds like what we in the States would call a "hostile work environment."

It is, of course, legal to fire a U.S. employee for being "boring," not to mention being "professionally inadequate." But if being "fun" and a "team player" requires one to get drunk, engage in "simulated sexual acts," share a bed with co-workers -- and I don't even want to know what the "nicknames" and "deformed and made-up photos" were about -- it is likely that a U.S. court would agree with the Parisian...

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