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my husband was fired!! just not fair
Just needing to vent ladies and to see if anyone else has dealt with this.....We had our 2nd child January 15th and my husband used 3 vacation days that week with no problem. He worked the following week and all of Feb with lots of overtime work until last week (the last week of Feb). I believe I have been suffering from postpartum depression and he helped take care of our son a few nights which caused him to get little or no sleep so that I could rest. Each morning (3 total) he let his boss and other employees know that he was using vacation time and would not be in.
He is a supervisor and makes sure that each Friday everyone knows what jobs are to be completed for the next week. If by chance something would have came up that needed his immediate attention he would have went in if it was absolutely necessary. He worked Wed with nothing said about missing Mon & Tue, he missed Thur and went in Friday. One of his bosses jumped his case that morning about not coming in and then nothing else was said until he was called to HR that afternoon and was terminated for "lack of leadership" and "they are going in a different direction".
My husband is a good hard worker, he had been employed at his location for 6 years and was moved into the supervisor position over 2 years ago. He's hasn't received any write ups and has received several certificates for great work done. He works thru lunch almost everyday but yet still gets the time deducted with no complaint. He works from home and even has to go in late at night if fiber gets cut or a network goes down that needs to be fixed before the next morning.
About 6 months ago an
employee under my husband was put in jail for not paying child support
and did not contact my husband or anyone else for days. Once the guy did
my husbands boss started working on getting the guy out on work
release. This took some time and the guy wasn't able to start work
release until after spending about 3 weeks in jail. I do not understand
how that guy gets to keep his job,but my husband gets terminated, not
demoted, not put on probation, not set down to discuss options just
You're done. I am beyond pissed
This discussion has been closed.
Re: my husband was fired!! just not fair
That sounds like an unfair firing. He might have cause for appeal.
If they fired him without cause, he can collect unemployment, so he might want to research that. A friend of mine had that problem. Because they fired him, he couldn't get unemployment, but when they talked to a lawyer, they appealed it and it was found they had fired him without cause. He didn't get the job back, but he did get his unemployment benefits.
I agree that there may be more to this story, but I'm confused as to why everyone thinks that he took an excessive amount of time off (3 days) and that he did it without notice. I think she said that he called in each morning and that he used his vacation time.
Not to mention they had "cause"...lots of it it seems.
I can see it if he was using vacation time as sick leave. I figured that she was using the term interchangeably, but if not, then it may very well have been against company policy and therefore grounds for termination. I am laughing at some people saying that calling in sick the morning of work is too late of notice. I usually tried to make the call about being sick the following day the night before because I was a teacher and it required me to find a sub, but dh usually tries to see if he can go in the morning before calling in.
First, I'm really sorry you're dealing with this right now. Regardless of the circumstances it certainly seems like you're both surprised by the outcome. MH very unexpectedly lost his job right before Christmas just weeks before my due date with #2 and it definitely turned our world on its head. I know how frustrating it is.
Second, I used to work with unemployment. As far as the termination goes, it really depends on the situation. Some companies do have leave policies where your H's absences could be seen an unexcused and therefore the circumstances of his termination could be considered just cause depending on the policy. However, it really depends on how the policies are written (both having to do with the leave itself and the company's disciplinary policy). Even IF there is a vacation policy which states vacation has to be pre-approved or scheduled ahead, etc. if he was calling in every day and someone of authority was telling him everything was a-okay that muddies the situation. Typically there's some sort of progressive disciplinary policy as well. The leave policy would need to state that he could be immediately terminated for unexcused absences.
Of course employment is at-will so none of this will bring his job back, but it's very important in terms of eligibility for unemployment benefits.
I do feel badly for him though. Even if the vacation policy was such that it needed to be pre-approved (and that's an assumption) it does sound like they didn't give him any warning that he was abusing the leave policy. They could have at the very least contacted him after the first day to say that his absence was considered unexcused because vacation can't be used in that way. Employers have a responsibility to make sure their employees understand when their job is in jeopardy, either through explicit policies or better yet, using a progressive disciplinary policy.
Maybe there is more to it, but I've certainly been privy to a number of cases where the employer is just an ahole who doesn't want to be fair for whatever reason. It's their prerogative, but not really fair to employees.
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This is a prime reason that husbands should have FMLA filed for the birth of their children. DH's job is very flexible and luckily allowed him a month for the baby, and pretty much anytime anyone in the family is sick with no advance notice- but DH has only used one sick day since when I was a high fever and DS is 15 months now.
Anyway, as another PP said, some people get a large amount of "vacation time" which also includes their sick time, just under one bank and use the term interchangeably. I really suspect, though, that there is more going on when he was fired. I am sorry you all are dealing with that- did he have FMLA for the birth of your child? If so, you might be able to fight under that- but I believe when you call out, you have to specify it as FMLA for it to be counted under the protection of t.
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I guess it depends on the company's policy. DH works for a newspaper and even personal days have to be scheduled because it's so hard to cover for people without warning. I don't know how other companies work with vacation days and whether they need to be scheduled. I was just going on the fact that he called and said he was taking the days and they didn't object.
I'm so sorry. I hope he finds something soon. Hopefully he'll be able to collect unemployment until he finds something else.
It sounds to me like they were looking for a way to get him out. In my experience, they should have taken him aside to find out what was going on. They should have give him a warning. I can't imagine DH's company FIRING him for missing work after having a baby with no notice at all. You' think they'd need to create a paper trail before they off someone.
File for unemployment. Since they did not try to improve his work performance he probably should be able to get benefits.
Unemployment also has many resources available in helping get a new job, whether it is job training to make him more marketable or helping writing a resume.
I'm really sorry to hear this
I would definitely look into unemployment while he's looking for a new job. Hopefully he can find something better.
I've never heard of a company where sick days can't be used to stay home to help a sick family member- which he was effectively doing. And my friend's DH had a terrible type of stomach flu this year. He called in every morning for a week to say he couldn't come in because he was still sick. Every night he went to bed hoping he'd feel well enough to go in the morning- he always made the call in the morning. It's not like he could have anticipated how bad it was.
While the firing might be "legal", it was in poor form considering his past work ethic with the company. They morally owed him at least a warning that what he was doing wasn't ok. Had they explained it to him, I'm sure that he would have at least gone to work and been present.
I'm really sorry OP, that sucks.
It seems like there is more to the story though whether you've left info out or your husband hasn't been honest with you about his work performance. I thunkmitmalso depends on company policy.
when I had my D&C following my 2nd miscarriage I got really depressed and DH ended up needing to take quite a few personal days until I got into therapy and started to get thugs under control. He ended up talking to his boss about what was going on and filing FMLA to help protect his job while we went through a tough time.
I don't know how much of a discussion your H had with his boss about what was going on at home, but in the future it's a good idea to keepmhismboss well informed otherwise he looks unreliable.
There is more to the story we just don't know it. He has been receiving calls all week from people he worked with daily and people that are finding out by people talking about it. Not just one company, I'm talking about different contractors from different divisions. Everyone has been in complete shock because even though some people would see at as abusing a privilege that was how things worked there. He has several people calling in to other companies trying to get him a job. He is a good worker, people would not be doing that if he was a lazy bum.
He worked at Redstone Arsenal for a contracted company, his immediate company supervisor was out when it happened and came back this week pissed and doesn't understand why the govt. contact went over his head without discussing it with him first. Like I said no warning at all, nobody was aware of a problem.
There has to be some other reason because other employees come in late because they were hunting or leave early because of this and that. Which the govt guy has always said "stuff comes up just make up your time". Even the govt guy takes 2 hour lunches, comes in late, goes home early sometimes. Hell he wasn't even at HR when my husband was fired. After he knew it was done he told the other guys that worked under my husband that "he felt bad that it had to come to that" and then left work EARLY. The one guy was in jail for 3 days before his girlfriend called to inform anyone. Then he was in jail about 2 months before getting out of course he did work release for about a month of that but still he was in jail for 3-4 weeks without coming to work and he KEPT HIS JOB.
It's aggravating not knowing what the real reason is, because it can't be for what it appears to be. Which I know some of you will think that is a stupid remark because most companies wouldn't stand for it. But when it's been done and it has never been a problem by so many others and has even been said that it was ok.
To answer some of your questions, he use to a crew vacation time but got his 120 hours released on his anniversary Jan.22 and there is no sick time to use. He hadn't discussed using FMLA because he though vacation time was sufficient, last week was a slow week. The last time he took an excessive amount of time off was last June when his grandmother fell and ended up in the hospital on a respirator. He went to work the first few days while she was in the hospital and then he used vacation time. When the doctors decided to take her off the respirator her oxygen levels were not good and basically said she wouldn't make it. They still allowed him to use vacation time, then when she passed away they gave him bereavement leave because we had to travel out of state for the funeral. The week before she was in the hospital we had went on a PLANNED vacation for a week so after all the time he was away from work ended up being a month and he never mentioned FMLA and they never had a problem with it.
This doesn't prove that he wasn't reliable and that it happened all the time, the last time before his grandmother was when I had surgery in 2010 and he planned to use vacation time the first week of my two week recovery. We were able to have family help the 2nd week. I guess my problem is the fact that it is ok for some but apparently not all. You shouldn't hold my husband to a higher standard than the rest because it sets a bad example to people under him if you are in higher position than my husband but yet you're not setting a good example yourself.
one week was planned and approved vacation and one week was bereavement leave so he missed two unplanned weeks but was able to use vacation time for that as well. but again if something came up that he absolutely had to go in for he was called and went in and handled it.
I guess I'm at fault here because I do not see 3 days as being excessive when he had been working so much overtime beforehand. He had no write ups and his immediate supervisor had no complaints. I just think it could have been handled differently, even by my husband. With the way others are able to come and go without upper management minding and also my husband understood and didn't recommend to fire employees but it happened to him I just don't think it's fair.
also I'm just getting it off my chest I'm not bad mouthing people/company by name and we are not in that small of a town. He already filed for unemployment that day and he starts a new job Monday and still has people calling him for interviews. I was never worried that he wasn't going to be able to find something else and I have been supportive every step of the way. I am using this as my outlet for my anger because I guess I feel he was done unfairly. Mostly because the guy that spent 2 months in jail got to keep his job and will probably get my husbands job because he was the next in line.
People are fired for no legitimate reason all the time . Some people are just that way. I was fired while pregnant with my first child and was told it was because I made an insurance mistake on a patients file months beforehand that they had just became aware of that week. I didn't even HANDLE INSURANCE, another employee who had been there longer than me did that. I wasn't protected because it was a small company but I know that wasn't the real reason because they had been interviewing for my replacement a month before that week. The reason I know that happened is because I got held up with a patient one day and didn't take my lunch when I was planning to.
I hate to say it but sh!t happens. You really have to decide if you NEED to take time off work. DH has lost his dad and stepmom and only took 1-2 days off each time.
Also get the heck over everyone else and what they do. It's the most immature argument in the world.