Workplace Blog

Inside Higher Ed reports:

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit against Harvard University over its firing in 2003 of Michael Mammone, who was an assistant in a university museum and who has bipolar disorder. Mammone charged that the university violated state anti-bias laws that protect the employment rights of people with disabilities, including mental disorders. But the court found that Mammone’s behavior that led to his dismissal — including maintaining a Web site criticizing the university, working on that Web site during work hours, having loud and animated discussions at work about the Web site, and refusing meetings with supervisors and ignoring their warnings — meant that he failed to demonstrate that the was a “qualified employee” under the statute. One judge dissented, saying that the court did not give enough weight to the years in which Mammone worked without incident.

The Chronicle: Massachusetts High Court Finds for Harvard in Firing of Mentally Ill Man

Disappointing disability-rights advocates, the highest court of Massachusetts ruled on Friday that Harvard University had the right to fire a mentally ill employee for what the court called “egregious workplace misconduct.”