What employees do after hours...is it any of your business?

Your employees are the lifeblood of your business and you invest alot in them financially.  While they are at work, your company’s policies help dictate what they can and cannot do on company time and on the company premises. After work what they do is their business, or is it? 

 

When 24 year old Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger crashed his motorcycle into 62 year old Martha Fleishman’s Chrysler New Yorker, the news stunned the Steeler’s team and the nation. Witnesses to the accident said that Roethlisberger did not appear to be speeding in the 35 mph zone, although it has been reported that he was not wearing a helmet. Roethlisberger lost most of his teeth, fractured his left sinus cavity bone, sustained a nine-inch cut on the back of his head, broke his jaw, and injured both of his knees. Martha Fleishman was not injured in the accident.

Click here to see a graphical representation of the accident

As an employer who is paying millions of dollars to Roethlisberger, the youngest quarterback to win a Superbowl, the Steeler’s could try to recoup some of his initial sign-in bonus for engaging in an activity that caused him to”sustain injury as a result of a non-football activity as a result of participating in hazardous activities which involve a significant risk of personal injury and are non-football in nature”, as is stated in the standard NFL contract.  If the Steelers decide to pursue that avenue, it is likely that Roethlisberger’s lawyers would argue that the contract contains no specific language that prohibits players from riding a motorcycle. According to a web article at packersnews.com, the only recourse that the Steelers have would be to put Roethlisberger on the non-football injury list, which would allow them not to pay him his salary, but gives the team the right to call him back if he is able to play football again. 

Because of incidents like Thurman Munson’s fatal plane crash in 1979 and Jason Williams’ career-altering motorcycle wreck in 2003, contracts in the NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball — which are guaranteed — include a laundry list of banned activities for their players as teams protect themselves. Motorcycling, piloting aircraft, bungee jumping, skydiving, even playing recreational basketball, are outlawed.

Roethlisberger’s accident reaches beyond the sports world. It encompasses the broader questions of company and employee relationships.  Should the same rulings apply to other employees who are highly valued by the company they work for because of the job they perform for them? 

QUESTIONS - WHAT DO YOU THINK? 

What do you think about restricting the non-work activities of nurses? Statistics state there is a severe nursing shortage in the U.S. Should they be made to sign a contract that prohibits them from risky activities outside of work?

If a scientist was on the verge of curing cancer should his or her activities outside of work be dictated because they hold the key to solving a terrible disease? * Take the case of John Kanzius who is on the fast track to finding a cure for cancer. Researchers say it will replace heart disease as the number *one* killer within the next three years. 

What employees do you think should have their non-work activities defined by company policies?

Does a company have the right to restrict an employees non-work activities if it affects the value they bring to the company?

Do you think that it is against an employee’s civil rights for a company to tell them what they can do or not do outside of company time?
 

Dawn Turner
Blog Development and Management
The SearchLogix Group