Unjustified Termination?
My name is Kyle, and back in January of 2018, I was terminated by the company that I had worked at for more than 7 years. I had been a loyal and knowledgeable employee from December of 2010 to January of 2018, when I was terminated. Their justification for terminating my employment was by claiming that I had reached the 12 points that the company sets as their threshold for being able to terminate employees justifiably. Although, I had called off work on January 17th, and visited an Urgent Care facility, and I was given an excuse to miss work for the day from a doctor. The company policy had always been that an employee can not receive any points from calling off, as long as the absence was excused by a doctor. Suspiciously, I was told by management that I was to give my doctor's excuse to my supervisor that day, instead of dropping it into the Human Resources Manager's drop box, which was what I had done every other time I had missed a day of work in the 7+ years prior to the morning of January 18th. A couple of months prior to the date of my termination, I had totalled my car while driving to work. I hit a deer on the highway, and eventually slammed into the guardrail, causing my side airbags to deploy. I was taken to the hospital to have my head and neck x-rayed. I was specifically told by the doctor who took the x-rays that I WAS NOT ABLE to return to work until the following Monday. I was off work for 5 days in total. Fast forward to January when I was terminated from my job.... I was fired for pointing out, even though I had brought in a medical excuse that should have prevented me from receiving any points. When the HR Manager was firing me, he referenced the fact that I had missed 5 days of work back in October... When I legitimately totalled my vehicle, and was actually taken to the hospital. And he said that "The company has given me a lot of leeway regarding the situation with me accruing points". He also told me that "The company overlooked the fact that I had missed 5 days of work in October". I couldn't believe what I was hearing because of the actual circumstances surrounding why I had missed those 5 days. He made it seem like I fabricated the story about totalling my car... Even though I both faxed in, and brought in a physical copy of the paperwork that I received from a doctor. I also texted pictures of my totalled car to my direct Supervisor within minutes of my accident. I filed for unemployment benefits, and I was denied. Then I filed an appeal, and was denied again. And finally, I filed a second appeal, and I was denied for the third time in regard to my termination.
Call EEOC and file a case against them.
Hi Kyle Lucas - that sounds awful. If you had a medical excuse for not being in the office then you definitely need to submit that paperwork with your appeal, especially if it was referenced as a reason for termination in your file.
Who are you submitting the appeals too? Let me know so we can try to work this out.
In the meantime, are you looking for work?
Hey Kyle Lucas , I'm really sorry to hear about your unfortunate separation of employment at the beginning of the year. @JamieStone added a conversation over the weekend that discusses At-Will Employment rules and there justification, see Understand "At Will Employment".
Were you given any routine performance reviews with management over your 7 month tenure at that company? If so, was the jeopardy of violating the 12 point employee performance adherence policy ever discussed. What was the plan of action or management suggestion?
It sounds like you were blindsided by the separation of employment which leads me to believe you were never warned and/or offered an opportunity to improve your attendance.
This is a delicate situation to comment on due to the lack of information and an employer's account of what occurred and ultimately led to your termination of employment.
Failure to gain unemployment benefits after 3 tries is also very concerning. How's your job search going so far? Have you been on any interviews? Any interviews coming up?
Losing a job after dedication so many years is a painful and stressful experience that many times can lead to unconscious resentments that keep you stuck and unable to move forward unless you're able to supersede those unproductive feelings.
Give us an update on your job search when you have an opportunity and let us know how we can help you progress along your journey.
I worked for Labcorp for almost 2 years and in that time I had NEVER been written up while others had at least a couple. I had not even had a complaint. I was terminated when a co world that lent me 20 dollars. By the way, it was offered by the co worker, it was not me that asked for it. Labcorp fired me stating the reason was "it made Labcorp look bad" Now I'm having a really hard time finding another job. I'm mad because I was an awesome worker and my patients loved me. But since washington state is an at will state, there's not much I can do. I think it was discrimination since my boss was an easy Indian man who openly didn't like white people or women which is what I am.