"Too Cute"

In some states, there is an extremely low level of protection for employees from being termination for little or no reason.  The idea is that I simply don't have to hire you, or keep you hired, absent a constitutional, statutory or contractual reason to the contrary.  New York has long been a clear example of a state where there is no general right to work, be employed, etc.

For some, the result is counterintuitive.  But it's actually a cogent result that flows from the underlying dearth of legal hiring-related requirements on employers and the concomitant lack of legal protection running in favor of employees.  I mean, it's nice for a court to want to try to help out, but the basis for doing so can be murky at best.

The example I like to give is that I can fire you for having brown eyes.  If you have no right to work for me at all, then the extent to which I inappropriately or even irrationally choose to terminate you is of no moment.  Arguably, I can even fire you for your refusal to give up a valuable right (e.g., contractually required compensation), leaving you with only any contractual rights you may otherwise have.  The basis for the termination can't be a veiled rationale actually grounded in some kind of prohibited discrimination - but, absent such a pretense, the employer may well have free rein.

A recent case drives that home.  According to reports, Dilek Edwards was fired by Charles Nicolai as a yoga instructor and massage therapist.  Why?  The allegation was that Nicolai's wife, an ex-Playmate (and, apparently, a descendant of Presidents John Adams and John Quincy Adams (?!?)), was sufficiently jealous that she incited her husband to terminate Ms. Edwards.  It was alleged that Ms. Edwards was informed by Mr. Nicolai that she was just "too cute."  The judge ruled against Ms. Edwards, pointing out that the complaint did not allege that the termination was "because of her status as a woman."

Now I'm not sure this case is right.  I think there's a credible claim in a case like this that being terminated for being too cute flows sufficiently from the cute person's status as a woman.  Regardless, though, the case illustrates, in a pretty amusing way (although presumably not amusing to Ms. Edwards), how truly hard (no pun intended) it is to bring a successful claim in New York for wrongful termination.