HR in the EU.

Still Crazy After All These Years?

London's Sunday Telegraph reports European Union regulations make it so hard to fire someone that "the European Commission has been accused of trying to have troublesome staff declared mentally ill in order to provide an excuse for giving them the sack":

Among those who claims to have been a victim of the new tactic is Jose Sequeira, 58, a Portuguese official who is now taking the commission to court over what he says was a deliberate attempt to sack him using psychiatric tests.

Mr Sequeira, who worked in the commission's ministry for development, says he was astonished to read personnel reports which said his behaviour "sowed doubt regarding the state of his mental health."

He was put on permanent sick leave after tests found he suffered "verbal hyper-productivity" and a "lack of conceptual content" in his speech.

It sounds as though they're saying he talks too much and doesn't have anything worthwhile to say. Sort of like Jimmy Carter--although, thank goodness, we Americans were able to fire him without a psychiatrist's certification.