Under Pressure If an employee feels forced to quit, it could be trouble. Here's how to avoid a "constructive discharge" lawsuit.

When is a resignation not a resignation? When a court declares it a "constructive discharge."

Suppose you have an employee you want to get rid of for a variety of reasons, but you're worried that firing her might look like race or age or gender discrimination. So you try to force her out. You reassign her to a windowless office half the size of what she had. You assign her the least desirable work. You tell other employees to shun her. And after a few weeks, she quits. Then-surprise! You get slapped with the lawsuit you feared, claiming she was effectively terminated. What's up with that?

The employee's action relies on the legal concept "constructive discharge." It means that conditions at work had become so intolerable that any reasonable person would have quit. It doesn't matter whether you fired her or she threw in the towel; if a court rules the circumstances a constructive discharge, you're just as liable.