Man wins fight for his right to not party

A French court ruled that companies can’t fire their workers for failing to be sufficiently “fun.” 

A man, named “Mr. T” in court documents, was working for the Paris consultancy firm Cubik Partners when he was fired in 2015 for not adhering to the company’s “fun” values, which he argued in a lawsuit included “excessive alcoholism” and “promiscuity.”

The court, in a document dated Nov. 9 and widely reported this week, ruled the employee was exercising his “freedom of expression” by refusing to participate in after-work drinks and team-building activities.

The man, who had worked at the company since 2011, was fired four years later for “professional incompetence,” which included allegations that he was difficult to work with and was a poor listener, according to court documents.

But the man argued otherwise, claiming the company’s “fun” values included regular obligatory social events that culminated in “excessive alcoholism encouraged by colleagues who made very large quantities of alcohol available,” as well as “practices pushed by colleagues involving promiscuity, bullying and incitement to various excesses.”