EntertainHR: Helping Haverford – What Parks and Recreation Teaches Us About Employee Terminations

Parks and Recreation is a beloved mockumentary sitcom that focuses on the lives of several employees of the fictional Pawnee, Indiana’s Parks and Recreation Department. One of those characters is the sarcastic and entrepreneurial Tom Haverford, played by Aziz Ansari. Throughout the series, Tom embarks on several business ventures. One of his business ventures, Rent-A-Swag, brings Tom’s idea to rent out high-value clothing to life.

Rent-A-Swag begins as a one-man operation. However, the shop’s success soon pushes Tom to hire an employee to help him manage his growing business. He chooses Mona-Lisa Saperstein, played by Jenny Slate. Almost immediately, Tom realizes that hiring Mona-Lisa was a mistake, as she refuses to work or listen to Tom, often picking fights with Tom and their customers or napping on the job. Tom panics when he realizes he must terminate Mona-Lisa and seeks advice from his friends.

Tom’s experience, although exaggerated for laughs, is not unheard of. Employers frequently face the difficult decision to terminate an employee. Luckily for the real-world Tom Haverfords, basic rules exist to guide employers through this aspect of running a company. Indiana, like most of the US, is an “at-will” employment state. This means that an employer can terminate an employee for any reason or no reason at all as long as it is not for an illegal reason. Illegal bases for terminating employees generally include terminating an employee because of a protected characteristic (like their race or sex) or in retaliation for engaging in protected activity (such as complaining about workplace harassment or wage and hour violations).

What this means for employers is that they can likely terminate an employee such as Mona-Lisa, who refuses to work and constantly disrupts the workplace with her antics. However, not all terminations are so simple. For more complicated situations, employers should consult their legal department or outside counsel. No termination is easy, but knowing the basic rules regarding this aspect of employment can help employers avoid fretting over this important decision.

Jake Koch is an assocaite at FordHarrison.

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