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Souther v. New River Area Mental Health Development Disabilities and Substance Abuse Program2/6/2001
s, as well as title 26 of the North Carolina Administrative Code, to obtain any and all necessary information to establish and advocate his or her position. Peace v. Employment Sec. Comm'n of North Carolina, 349 N.C. 315, 328, 507 S.E.2d 272, 281-82 (1998).
Just cause may result either from unacceptable job performance or unacceptable personal conduct. See Amanini at 679, 443 S.E.2d at 120. The difference is important because an employee must receive certain warnings before being terminated for unsatisfactory job performance, while no warnings are required for termination based on personal misconduct. See id. at 679, 443 S.E.2d at 121. However, " he categories are not mutually exclusive, as certain actions by employees may fall into both categories, depending upon the facts of each case." N.C. Admin. Code tit. 25, r. 1J.0604 (June 2000).
Although New River never specifically stated the grounds for Souther's dismissal, Beamon's letter terminating petitioner read in pertinent part:
Over the past weeks, your relationship with your client's family has deteriorated to the point that you refuse to provide in-home services to your client in her home. As you have been aware, the main purpose of the work you do for us is to enable clients to live in their own homes.
You refused to meet with me and your supervisor on 9-15-93, after being required by your supervisor to do so for the purpose of getting services flowing to your client again. Recently, you have spent a great deal of time and energy discussing with various staff how stressful it is for you to work here.
Thus, New River's finding of just cause was based on (1) petitioner's refusal to provide service to her client, and (2) petitioner's failure to attend the 15 September 1993 meeting with her supervisors.
New River contends that these reasons for dismissal constitute insubordination. "Insubordination" is defined as "the refusal to accept a reasonable and proper assignment from an authorized supervisor." Mendenhall, 119 N.C. App. at 651, 459 S.E.2d at 824 (citation omitted). Insubordination has been defined more broadly as "1. A willful disregard of an employer's instructions . . . . 2. An act of disobedience to proper authority; esp. a refusal to obey an order that a superior officer is authorized to give." Black's Law Dictionary 802 (7th ed. 1999). Thus, insubordination involves two elements: (1) A reasonable and proper instruction or assignment by an authorized supervisor; and (2) A willful or intentional refusal to comply with such instruction or assignment. We must therefore determine the reasonableness of the requests made by New River for Souther to return to the Jenkins' home and to attend the 15 September 1993 meeting, and the reasonableness of Souther's failure to comply with those requests. We note that, because insubordination is a form of personal misconduct, see Amanini, 114 N.C. App. at 679, 334 S.E.2d at 121, if Souther's conduct constituted insubordination, then New River was not required to provide warnings to her before her discharge.
We first consider the 15 September 1993 meeting, which was called for the purpose of reviewing the results of the investigation into petitioner's allegations and to re-establish service to Robinette. We assume arguendo that the request by Beamon and Johnson that Souther attend the meeting was reasonable and proper. Our inquiry thus proceeds to whether Souther's refusal to comply with this reasonable request was willful.
"The conduct of an employee cannot be termed willful misconduct if it is determined that the employee's actions were reasonable and taken with good cause." Urback v. East Carolina Univ., 105 N.C. App
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