[imagesource: YouTube / The Wolf of Wall Street]

Letting your hair down and going wild in a professional environment is a tricky business.

Not everyone is keen for their colleagues to see them cuddling the pavement or hurling their innards on the curb one night and then all suited up and ready to sign some paperwork the next morning.

It’s enlightening and confusing all at the same time.

One man in France has just won a seven-year legal battle against having fun at work, with the high court ruling that being fired because he didn’t want to drink with his colleagues was wrongful dismissal.

VICE reported that the man, referred to as Mr T. in court documents, was fired by Paris-based Cubik Partners in 2015 because he refused to embrace the company’s self-ascribed “fun” culture.

Mr T. didn’t feel any desire to take part in team-building activities and weekend social events, which his lawyers argued often included “excessive alcoholism” and “promiscuity”.

Fortune mentions that there was also “bullying, and incitement to various excesses” among its staff at these events.

Okay, fair enough. The workplace boundaries were clearly crossed there.

The company deserves the hot water:

Mr. T claimed that the “fun” culture in the company involved “humiliating and intrusive practices” including crude nicknames and sharing his bed with another employee during work functions.

Apparently, there was also the expectation to carry out mock sexual acts with his workmates as well as post “distorted and made-up” photographs in the office.

Although, the company, which the year before firing Mr T. had promoted him to a director role, argued that his dismissal was on the grounds of his “professional incompetence”.

The company’s lawyers further argued that Mr T. sometimes had a “brittle and demotivating tone” toward subordinates, and struggled with feedback and differing points of view.

But because his refusal to participate was given as a reason for his dismissal, the judge deemed he had been wrongfully fired:

The judge said the company violated his freedom of expression and opinion by firing Mr. T for refusing to join in with these practices.

The court ordered Cubik Partners to pay Mr T. €3 000 (about R50 000) in damages.

Keep the excessive drinking and promiscuity contained in your personal life, okes, please. Have some decency.

[sources:vice&fortune]