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I had a brief intimate encounter with a colleague's wife and he found out about it. I have stated my extreme sorrow and regret over this event however he says we will no longer be able to work together.

In the meantime I have been out of the office for the last 6 weeks either taking vacation or working from home to grant him his wish to not see me. This is not a long term solution and at some point I will need to start coming back into the office. The office is open concept and has 25-30 employees. Ontario, Canada

So my question is - can I be fired? If he complains that he is unable to work in the same room does the firm have that right? Obviously I will no longer be viewed in a positive light.

JLB
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    @JoeStrazzere Only if it is at will – paparazzo Aug 09 '17 at 20:49
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    @Paparazzi Don't be so sure. They'll just fire him for cause under some vague violation of the employee manual. – Old_Lamplighter Aug 09 '17 at 20:51
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    I mean, do you really want to stick around after that kind of thing happened anyway? – pay Aug 09 '17 at 20:56
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    Are you asking whether your company can legally fire you (off-topic here), whether you will be fired (impossible for us to say) or whether it would be ethical/professional for your company to fire you over this? Or are you looking for ways to do damage control and try to salvage this job? – Lilienthal Aug 09 '17 at 21:07
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    Related - https://workplace.stackexchange.com/q/7617/2322 – enderland Aug 09 '17 at 21:10
  • @Lilienthal - As far as I know the company is not aware of the situation. From what I understand, my colleague is looking to leave. I'm not sure if he will have parting words or not. We are both embarrassed by what has happened. So I am asking whether they can legally fire me but at the same time trying to salvage this job. – JLB Aug 09 '17 at 21:16
  • Did you know she was the colleague's wife prior to the encounter, or was this an unknowing mistake? If you knew, it's your fault, if you didn't it's not. Employer's response should tie to that.. – cdkMoose Aug 09 '17 at 21:23
  • @cdkMoose - Yes I knew prior – JLB Aug 09 '17 at 21:24
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    You have broken a trust, I think it's time to leave. – cdkMoose Aug 09 '17 at 21:30
  • If you had a regret, as you mentioned - then leave quietly and find new job asap – Narender Parmar Aug 10 '17 at 02:21
  • @Paparazzi I live in Ontario, Canada. I hear a lot about this "at will employment" stuff down in the States, but as far as I know, it's not a thing up here. A company needs just cause to terminate ("fire") an employee. That being said, it's not uncommon IME for a company to "lay off" individuals that they want gone but don't have just cause to fire. The company still has to pay severance in this case, though, so they'd need to really want him gone. I doubt the company would try to get rid of the OP over this, unless the colleague in question is really important to their business. – Steve-O Aug 10 '17 at 13:10
  • @NarenderParmar Personal regret doesn't impact work. I think the person being childish at work because of something that happened outside work is ridiculous. I've had an honest-to-god fight with a co-worker and still maintained work professional relationships (we communicated when needed for an issue, but we didn't go out to lunch). – SliderBlackrose Aug 10 '17 at 14:55

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While not an on the job conduct, you've still managed to create a very uncomfortable workplace environment.

If I were you, I'd update my resume and get out before you are fired. If I were your boss, I'd get rid of you ASAP as you've demonstrated yourself to be of low character and not someone I'd want working at my company.

From a strictly risk-analysis standpoint, I would look better if I fired you rather than risk the loss of your coworker and the possible lawsuit from him for not firing you.

I'd have a much better chance of winning a lawsuit against you than against an employee who had to leave because he couldn't stand working with the one who slept with his wife.

In the days of social media, I also wouldn't want to risk someone posting about me keeping the cheater over the one who was cheated on.

There is no scenario where there is any advantage to your employer keeping you over your coworker.

So, I expect that your work will be found to be sub par, you will have been found to have violated some obscure rule on page 247 of the employee manual, and various and sundry other reasons to get rid of you that won't say on paper that it was because you slept with your coworkers wife.

But, oh yes, you can be fired, and probably will be. Update the resume and move on.

Old_Lamplighter
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    I don't think you can sue someone for a guy not being fired when you sleep with his wife. In fact, I'm pretty sure you still couldn't sue if they made video on it and put the video online. – Magisch Aug 10 '17 at 06:19
  • @Magisch in the USA, you can sue a ham sandwich. We don't have "loser pays", so the courts can and have been used as a means of legal harassment. – Old_Lamplighter Aug 10 '17 at 10:16
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    in Canada, you couldn't be fired for that BUT they can always find other reasons. – SaggingRufus Aug 10 '17 at 10:43
  • @SaggingRufus exactly. Work will be found to be sub-par, violations of rarely enforced policies will be cited, et cetera. – Old_Lamplighter Aug 10 '17 at 12:27