Handling Workplace Vigilantes

Recently, an Oregon Home Depot worker claimed that he was fired for helping a customer pursue a man she claimed kidnapped her child. Home Depot ended up changing its mind and allowed him to keep his position. However, this brings to mind a couple of Tennessee cases in which employees claimed they were unlawfully fired for acting as "Good Samaritans." These employees learned the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished.

In the case of Little v. Eastgate of Jackson, Jason Little was working as a store clerk when he saw a man assaulting a woman across the street. Little grabbed a baseball bat and confronted the assailant, causing the assailant to flee. He was a hero, right? That's not what his employer thought. His employer fired him because he abandoned the store to become involved in an altercation that was "none of our business."