HOOKSETT, N.H. — Can you be fired for gossiping about your boss? Four town employees here say they were, raising questions about fairness, free speech and a staple of life in the American workplace.
The employees were fired in April after speaking to a lawyer the town hired as a fact-finder to rout out chatterboxes.
They say questions about a close relationship between Town Administrator David Jodoin and a female employee, identified only as "A" in the lawyer's report, drifted into Town Hall sometime in March. They say they weren't the only ones who discussed the rumor, and dismissed it as untrue after briefly talking about it.
"We didn't start the rumor, nor did we say there was an affair going on," Joanne Drewniak said Tuesday. "We didn't have time like they think . . . to sit around and just gossip. That is so untrue."
People are also reading…
Drewniak worked for tax assessor Sandra Piper; both were fired. Also fired were code enforcement officer Michelle Bonsteel and her assistant, Jessica Skorupski.
The women now known as "The Hooksett Four" comprise about a quarter of the town's staff, including two entire departments. They are well-known in Hooksett, home to about 13,000 people.
"We're the first door they hit when they come in Town Hall," said Piper, who said she loved her job handling property-tax bills.
"They leave our offices smiling," said Bonsteel, who described code enforcement as her passion.
The women say they were told that nothing they said to the lawyer would be held against them. Then they were fired. The ensuing publicity has given the rumor new life, the women say.
"It's still out there and it's rattling like a rattlesnake," Piper said.
Town officials and their lawyers aren't talking.
The fact-finding report said Jodoin was upset by the rumor because he is happily married with two children.
The women say what upset them about the rumor was the perception of impropriety by the public and preferential treatment "A" was receiving, including higher pay than Drewniak and Skorupski despite having less seniority and experience.
