Employees got in a fight. I do nothing...right?

ADad
Fri, 08 Apr 2011 03:37:07 +0000

I don’t want to probe any further because then I would be getting myself involved.



You are involved, whether you want to be or not, to the extent that you are a supervisor and the event took place at your establishment and, as was pointed out above, you permitted a unsupervised nonworker into that establishment.

I think you need to speak to both parties, and anyone else within earshot, and develop an understanding of what happened on your own premises. Once you have that, you will be able to decide who, if anyone, to fire.

If you promptly write up what you learn, you will have documentation, which will come in handy if one of them decides to sue you and/or the company.



What if someone else (an entirely random person) walked in and started a fight with one of my employees…? What if, hypothetically, some seemingly normal customer striked me in the face while I was working at, I don’t know, Walmart? Would Walmart be responsible for creating an “unsafe” environment?



Not being a lawyer, I have no idea what your, or Walmart’s, responsibilities would be. However, those situations are different from what you describe. In your situation, management expressly permitted an off-hour employee to come in and allowed that person to be unsupervised, even though management was apparently aware that disruption of the work environment could occur. Is there a policy in the manual about allowing workers onto company property when they are not working?