A friend of mine (yes this really is a friend and not me) was working for a company a bit less than a year. Stellar employee, broke records for productivity consistently. The department the person worked in got in some trouble so the manager's solution was to let everyone hired recently go. Fine... this person rucked up and moved on. Actually doing quite well and will likely have a new position soon.

Here is the issue. Since termination, the former manager and other employees, have been contacting the former employee several times a week for advice on former job related topics. Requests were politely declined as having been terminated, no assistance can be provided. One email was sent from my friend to the personal email of a current employee that had been a friend, suggesting they could remain friends, as long as business was not discussed but there was no response.

Today this friend received a cease and desist letter from the former company barring any and all communication with any company employee, for any reason. The initial reaction was "how will I answer all of your questions when you keep emailing/calling/texting me if I'm not allowed contact with you?"


FWIW we both live in Michigan so advice must be relevant there.

I'm no attorney but it seems like a company would have no legal right to bar a former employee from any communication with employees outside of their official company communication circle. Granted I could see them barring a problem or term/cause employee (ie theft, assault, etc) from the property or any communication with the business, but this letter implied that even personal communication after hours was banned. Which seems odd as current company employees keep calling this individual for assistance.

That to me, almost sounds like harassment. Contact someone every other day for assistance after you terminate them, then send a cease and desist letter? I'm sure this is also being done as they'll guess a recently terminated employee cannot afford legal counsel to fight back.

Thoughts?

You might also consider possibility they've figured out the folks still there are communicating with him and are doing all they can to snip this off on both ends, especially if any part of their business includes sensitive information which almost every one does.

Either way, there's nothing for him to fight here, just move along IMHO.

Unless there are related provisions in an employment, severance, separation or similar agreement, the company has no ability to prevent your friend from communicating with its employees. Your friend is free to talk to whomever he likes about any subject unless he is contractually prohibited from doing so.

Disclaimer: Not licensed in Michigan or familiar with Michigan law.

Was there anything while employed that might regulate this? Like a nondisclosure agreement? If not, send it back with a nice letter saying it is their employees that won't leave him alone with questions about their work. And if the calls persist, he'll start billing them consulting fees. As for meeting their employees off company time, how much is it worth to them? A: Your friend no longer works for them and B: it's still a free country.

No, they can't do that. First, and maybe most important, they can't go to court to enforce their directives, because the court can't do it - that would be a prior restraint on speech in contravention of the 1st amendment.

There is no contractual basis for the attempt anyway. He has no agreement with them to not speak to their employees, based on what you said.

I see a fair number of employers make pretty egregious over-reaches in this area. I'd be curious to know whether lawyers were involved in the cease and desist letter. A lot of former employers try self-help on this stuff. Even if lawyers wrote the letter, they may have warned their client it won't hold up, but that there is little harm in trying.

All they can really do is try to enforce it on their end - that is tell their current employees to not talk to him.

And I would answer exactly zero of their questions about his old job, unless they wanted to pay me for it.

Did your friend sign anything agreeing not to talk with current employees post termination? If so, that may be an issue.

Do the current employees have confidentiality agreements (or something similar) that preclude them from discussing company business with non-employees? If so a crafty lawyer might characterize your friend having those discussions as tortious interference (the same claim you would make against an employer who hires someone subject to a noncompete).

In either circumstance I would expect the basis for the threat to be cited in the letter. If there is none cited I would assume none exists.

Did the letter threaten to do anything, like file a lawsuit? Was it written by a lawyer?

Just FYI--Ignore the comment mentioning prior restraint. Unless the former employer is a governmental entity, the First Amendment (and, in turn, prior restraint) have no application here. The First Amendment restricts only the government, not private entities.

I once had a company try some crap after I left.

I quit. I had a good reason that no one disputed.

They sent me a nasty email.

A response that I was going to contact the state labor board ended it.



If I was him and not caring if I burned the bridge, I would make a call to the Michigan Department of Labor & Economic Growth.


https://www.michigan.gov/leo/workplace-and-labor

quote:

Today this friend received a cease and desist letter from the former company barring any and all communication with any company employee, for any reason. The initial reaction was "how will I answer all of your questions when you keep emailing/calling/texting me if I'm not allowed contact with you?"

I'd copy it word for word, changing anything applicable, and send it back.

quote:

Originally posted by TAllen01:
Just FYI--Ignore the comment mentioning prior restraint. Unless the former employer is a governmental entity, the First Amendment (and, in turn, prior restraint) have no application here. The First Amendment restricts only the government, not private entities.

He cannot use the court (the government) to enforce a prior restraint. Damages later, if appropriate. No prior restraint.

Obviously IANAL, but say, I'm acquaintance/friend with some of their current employees, just like OP's friend's case. Know what I'm going to do?

quote:

Originally posted by 12131:
Obviously IANAL

Hey now, what you do in the privacy of your own home is really none of our business.

Thanks for all of the feedback.

This was an email directly from her former supervisor and no other leaders or legal were cc:, no letter head or legal reference, and this manager likes to rule by intimidation.

Given that and the feedback from the 'information nexus of the universe', my friend is assuming that this was in fact an intimidation tactic, for whatever reason, and likely nothing more.

With that additional information (no lawyer involved and no basis in contract for the threat) I'd say your friend is safe to ignore it. I'd be tempted to reply in kind - telling the offending supervisor to cease and desist any further communications relating to your friend's former employment. It's an equally hollow threat, but that would be the point.

I once worked in purchasing for a large corp. Apparently mgt became concerned about “fraternization” of employees with company vendors after hours. They issued a letter prohibiting socializing or visiting any person that worked with a company vendor. According to the letter, I would be prohibited from visiting with my old school friend who I had known before I worked for the company. The friend worked for a company vendor that supplied a commodity that I did not purchase and had no influence.

The day after the letter was issued, a legal dept employee hurriedly went to each purchasing employee and asked for each letter copy back. We were advised to disregard it and “forget” the incident.

The legal dept seemed quite panicked that the letter was issued. Guess mgt didn’t clear it with legal before issuing the memo.

In purchasing depts, companies or institutions may prohibit gifts, lunches etc. from vendors. That’s reasonable. When I ran a dept, I prohibited lunches, gifts etc.

Who a person sees or visits is not anyones business or so I believe.

If the letter was actually from a lawyer, I'd be tempted to file a complaint with the bar office of professional responsibility.

I'm a lawyer, and I hate it when lawyers do shit like this. I'm sitting on one at the moment where a lawyer threatened the green card immigration status of my client in a demand letter if he didn't do what the lawyer and her client wanted. That's a big no no in Florida, and I will be going to office of Bar Counsel if I need to to defend him.

quote:

Originally posted by ArtieS:
If the letter was actually from a lawyer, I'd be tempted to file a complaint with the bar office of professional responsibility.

I'm a lawyer, and I hate it when lawyers do shit like this. I'm sitting on one at the moment where a lawyer threatened the green card immigration status of my client in a demand letter if he didn't do what the lawyer and her client wanted. That's a big no no in Florida, and I will be going to office of Bar Counsel if I need to to defend him.

That's where I was headed when I asked if a lawyer wrote the letter. Advancing baseless claims in an attempt to bully unrepresented people into doing things they have no obligation to do violates the bar rules in every state I'm aware of, including Michigan where the OP is.

People in the company have been contacting your friend who was laid off and the manager sends her a cease and desist letter?

Like, would your friend be heartbroken by this? She should have entered into a contract with them as a consultant.