Several questions about OK employement law. I'm an employer with an exempt employee, who is doing her 40 hours a week in our Customer Service dept. She left yesterday for an "elective" surgery and is going to be gone until Monday. I asked her to leave her company-owned laptop there, which she takes home every night, so that we could check customer emails coming in. I got on her computer for the first time since we bought it for her last August, and found emails (on the company email she was assigned) giving out confidential company sales information to compile a resume, also emails showing that she had been sending her resume out and revising it on company time. I also found evidence showing that she had been playing solitare on company time, and surfing the internet for personal reasons (and job hunting reasons) on company time. It is stated in our company handbook that "confidential company information" is not to be given out, and it is stated in her job description that she is to help others with their jobs when hers is done.

I'm thinking about letting her go when she comes back in, but I want to be careful that she doesn't file unemployment. This is her first job out of college, and she has worked for us for less than a year. Do I have any grounds to stand on? Is there anything she can do to me legally if I let her go? If I offer her severance having her sign an agreement saying that she will not do anything against me legally does that include unemployment?

Also, I'd just like to clarify that the benefits I am paying: 40 hours of sick leave, 40 hours of vacation, all major holidays, are not required to be paid by law for anyone other than Federal Employees and I am not required to pay out vacation and sick leave if I ask her to resign?

Thank you very much in advance.

You can legally fire her. You cannot legally prevent her from filing for unemployment. You can, however, contest benefits; the state will make the final decision as to whether her violations are sufficent to deny benefits.

The only benefit that ANY state requires that you pay out at termination is any accrued but unused vacation or PTO. However, the one source I have access to at this time (I'm on someone else's computer at the moment) suggests that vacation DOES have to be paid out. The source I am looking at does not always list the conditions, though, so it's possible that it only has to be paid in certain situations. I'll be back on my own computer late this afternoon and will check my other sources then.

Even if you do have to pay it, you only have to pay any time that she ALREADY has accrued, not what she will accrue for the balance of the year.

Thank you for your prompt reply. I will probably offer to pay out both vacation and sick leave (it does not accrue, it is just stated in our handbook that salaried employees receive 40 hours of each). I don't want to just kick her out, so to speak, but at the same time, am afraid all this job hunting is affecting her work.

If she does file unemployment, what are the consequences for me as an employer?

Also, just thought of this: is it legal for me to look at personal documents I might find on her company owned computer?

Go with vacation if you feel you should, but I wouldn't set a precedent for paying out sick leave. That can get pretty ugly down the road.

There are no consequences for you as an employer if she FILES for unemployment. If she is GRANTED unemployment, then the worst possible consequence is that your rate is raised to the next level. It is quite unlikely that a single claim is going to be sufficient to do that.

You have the right to be looking at what she is doing on her company owned computer on company time. If you're asking whether you can read her personal letters, no, as soon as you see that they're personal you should stop reading. But that doesn't mean you've done anything illegal by investigating and finding that she's violating company policy on company time.