An employee would not be deemed to have been constructively dismissed if they were relocated for work, and they were aware of the potential relocation as a part of their employment. If an employer changes an employee's status, in some cases that can constitute a constructive discharge.
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IBM had massive layoffs beginning in the early 1990's.
My college buddy, his Father and Sister all worked at IBM (how's that for nepotism) all got laid off!
At the mid-level Management-to-Executive level it was fairly common for IBM'ers to be moved.
AT&T and the Bell System moved people around even more frequently than IBM back in the glory days.
IBM = I've Been Moved
Back in the 1980's and 90's it was very commonplace for employers to transfer their >managers as a condition of continued employment. AT&T employees transferred all >over the country at the company's request.
People generally accepted it and moved to their new work location.
Spent close to 2 decades there. Was never moved except one time I ASKED to be. It simply wasn't as common as you try to portray it.
Also in those days it was believed to be a job for life. Layoffs didn't exist. If you didn't sc--w up royally or do something criminal, you knew you'd have a job. Anyone here now who thinks that is delusional.
The old days are irrelevant.
Actually back in the 80's email became broadly available. Employees could access the AT&T corporate network remotely and fax machines were more readily available.
By the early-to-mid 90's file sharing was commonplace, and chat services were being introduced.
I worked in AT&T Sales during those years and we certainly weren't tethered to the office. In fact, my Sales Manager kicked his team out of the office and told us to go visit our customers.
"Back in the 1980's and 90's it was very commonplace for employers to transfer their managers as a condition of continued employment. AT&T employees transferred all over the country at the company's request.
People generally accepted it and moved to their new work location."
And back in the 1880's, people traveled by horse and if they were lucky, a horse and buggy! And back in the 1980's, they used a "modem" to use Alta Vista Search Engine! And back in the 1970's, the only way to connect outside of a network was to use a teletype machine!
“ Then the only old person at AT&T will be Stankey. He’ll be like Papa Smurf.”
He favors balding meany Gargamel more than Papa Smurf.
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If you’re going to bring up the 1980s and 1990s, put it in historical perspective.
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, we weren’t as technologically sophisticated as we are today.
Brick and mortar companies ruled the day. Big hair , big Malls, big behemoth Corporate Headquarters buildings ruled the world.
And, if we were asked to relocate, it was because it meant a potential promotion or some other logistical reason.
And guess what? The company paid relocation costs!
I know because that’s my own story.
IBM - I’ve Been Moved too
“IBM = I've Been Moved
Back in the 1980's and 90's it was very commonplace for employers to transfer their managers as a condition of continued employment. AT&T employees transferred all over the country at the company's request.
People generally accepted it and moved to their new work location.”
IBM = I've Been Moved
Back in the 1980's and 90's it was very commonplace for employers to transfer their managers as a condition of continued employment. AT&T employees transferred all over the country at the company's request.
People generally accepted it and moved to their new work location.
“Constructive discharge”. Sounds like something that I do, when crop-dusting all the VPs on my floor in downtown Dallas
Can they do this?
They have a team of attorneys that handed $4B to T-Mobile along with spectrum. (I hope they are working my age discrimination lawsuit).
As I understand, all were told to relocate to Dallas without getting relocation money. Seems the company did not want any employees to relocate, because they knew nobody could afford a move on their own dime. The upper management does not care about employees that have been with the company for so long, some 20yrs., that they consider all to be surplus and will hire new and cheaper labor in TX.
Can they do that?
I’ll be gone soon, because overt ‘age discrimination’ from Stankey.
Hard to prove age discrimination, when 2/3rds of workforce is over 50
they not only have a team of attorneys across all disciplines, they also have employee relations and all sorts of HR type people to cover every angle, only people that can impact this, is someone from within...
Isn’t that what they lead you to believe?
Good luck with that.
“I’m at home on MS Teams with a quiet environment, 2 monitors plus my laptop screen.”
You are in a different station of life. Seek employment elsewhere.
do you really think a company this size does not have its legal considerations covered? i feel bad for relocations but everyone else is starting to sound like hollow whining.
Quit complaining and sm--k’em in the nose wimp.
“they were aware of the potential relocation as a part of their employment”… anybody recently been told at time of employment it was likely they would have to relocate? And to a different STATE? I know of no one, but this is an honest question…I am curious if that is a thing now because I have not heard of that.
Having to reapply for the same position that moved is just 1 example of constructive discharge
They are saying “the role needs to be in Dallas”, but the role actually needs to be on MS Teams. I’m at home on MS Teams with a quiet environment, 2 monitors plus my laptop screen. Dallas members are trying to talk over lots of background noise, on a waiting list for a monitor and fatigued after traffic and parking. I’ll be gone soon, because overt ‘age discrimination’ from Stankey. Then, next year the youngsters in Dallas will get a ‘we heard you’ email from Stankey, and they’ll all be sent home to be remote again. Then the only old person at AT&T will be Stankey. He’ll be like Papa Smurf.
I don't know how much difference it makes, but the way it was presented to me was NOT "we need you to move", but more like "your position is moving to Dallas, we're not saying you have to follow it, but if you want to keep it, well, you know...". Is this how they get around "requiring employees to move"?
No one should take legal advice from a site like this.
Constructive discharge also deals with giving employees demeaning, embarrassing or inappropriate work as a means of harassment to force them to quit voluntarily. A classic example would be older employees being removed from sales, call center and home install duties and forced to instead clean bathrooms or push a mop bucket. The modern example would be older employees being forced to leave an existing AT&T office outside of the Atlanta/Dallas hub and move to that Atlanta/Dallas hub in order to keep a job that requires them to join MS Teams 80% of the time. Since the underlying collaboration can be done from anywhere, requiring someone to move would be harassment and would constitute Constructive Discharge.
The length of notice will vary based on the contractual amount of notice required for termination, much like severance pay. If your employer attempts to force you to relocate without a mobility clause or sufficient notice, this could be considered constructive dismissal.