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07-13-2012, 02:55 PM | #1 |
Banned
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 19,093
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So I thought I would share what things have been like for the last nine months. For those unfamiliar, you can catch up here:
So I am losing my job So while the job change came as a surprise, the ending result was supposed to be less stress and a job that would not require 70-80 hours of my attention every week. I was given a lead on my current job by a former colleague and it worked out. Within two weeks, I secured the position and started the week of Thanksgiving. I enjoyed what I was doing meeting the employees, listening to their concerns and learning about the business. This came to a grinding halt on January 13 and culminated in yesterday’s dismissal of the charges. Yes CHARGES So here is some background. As of January 6, I was at the new company for approximately six weeks when I was asked to sit in on a meeting between HR and about 10 or so employees. The topic was employees failing to clock in and out on their lunch breaks, failing to clock in and out while leaving for their lunch breaks and in some instances taking more than the allotted time for their breaks. I was asked to sit so I could discuss and reiterate the importance of managing who was on site at all times in the event of an emergency and ensure that we had an accurate head count. The last thing we would want to do is have emergency personnel going into the facility to look for a missing person who happened to be off-site at lunch and didn’t clock out. Well that part of the conversation never took place. You see, about three minutes into the conversation two employees began to get loud, belligerent and disrespectful to the HR Manager. They were asking inappropriate questions and trying to divert the conversation away from themselves and onto to Management. They were told several times that this was not the time or place and that if their actions continued, this would be considered insubordination and they would be disciplined. Well, these two fine examples (both were leads and in positions of authority as opposed to the regular hourly people that were present) continued to act inappropriately to the point that several employees apologized for their actions, promised it would never happen again and asked to be excused. This request was granted and the meeting was dismissed all the while these two idiots continue on. As everyone is exiting, one of the idiots tells HR he wants to meet with her in her office. She obliges but not before telling me that she wanted me present as she was not comfortable being alone with him because of how he was acting. I accompanied them to her office and as I entered, I closed the door (which is the proper way to conduct any confidential meeting). The idiot says that he wants the door open. We both explain to him why it needs to be closed and he insists. He then opens the door (striking me in the shoulder as he does so) continuing his protest that it be left open. He was told again it needed to be closed. I then close it and instruct him to sit down and stop acting the way he was. He complies and as he sits, we begin to tell him (respectfully as we are both professionals) that his actions were inexcusable and that as a lead he cannot act the way he did in front of other hourly employees including those that are under him. He sits there with this stupid look on his face and acts like he has no idea what we are talking about and that he did nothing wrong. He then starts asking all the same inappropriate questions about management and begins to get riled up again. At this point, HR tells him that she has had enough of his disrespectful behavior and that he is suspend immediately until further notice. He stands up to leave and says she can’t do that and he is going to talk to his supervisor (Mind you she and I are one of only three managers in the facility). As he proceeds down the hall I call after him and he ignores me and goes in search of the supervisor. Not finding him he turns around and as he does, the supervisor walks in from the shop. The idiot says “We are being unfair and suspending him for no reason.” The supervisor tells him, “It’s ok. Go into my office and we will discuss it.” I immediately tell them no and that he was given a direct order to leave or else the police would be called and he would be escorted off the property. As we are having this discussion in the hallway (I am present with HR, the idiot and the supervisor), the idiot blurts out “Don’t touch me Lody!” I immediately respond with “No one is touching you.” The super then says “Don’t you touch the man.” Both HR and I say in near unison “No one is touching anyone.” At this point, the employee goes to the break room and the shop to grab his things and leaves. I turn to the supervisor in the meantime and say to him, “You cannot do that. You cannot walk into a situation that you have no idea what just happened and undermine us especially not knowing the details. You’re response, you’re only response should be along the lines of “Do whatever they said to do” We are the Managers here, not you”. Well he didn’t like that one bit. General Manager comes back from lunch, we explain the situation and he says that he is firing the employee the next day (Saturday) if he shows up. Otherwise, it will be on Monday. Fast forward to first thing Monday (before I even arrive at work and he was fired). Done and done. Now, the reason the GM said he was firing this guy was because this idiot already had a long history (despite his short time of being a lead) of documented coachings, discussions and write ups as a result of his behavior towards other leads and hourly employees. Why he was not handled before, well this is the company’s fault as they refused to take action against him and fire his ass without ever providing a real reason why. FAST FORWARD Friday January 13th Mail comes and there is a letter from the local Precinct Justice of the Peace Court. I think “Oh great. This must be about that call I got last week from a creditor asking about one of our company’s accounts and it’s payment status”. I thought it was odd it was addressed to me, but weirder things have happened. I open the letter and see: The State of Texas vs. Lody You are charged with a Class C Misdemeanor “Assault by Contact” YES, you read that correctly. About two hours after being fired, this little prick filed charges against me which the stupid bitch District Attorney accepted. He claims that I pushed him down in the chair in the HR office and “intimidated him with my stature” and then put my hands on him in the hallway while the four of us are standing there. So as the freak out commences, I calm down enough to find out WTH happened. You see, I doubted the legitimacy of the letter given the fact that it came in the regular mail and was not certified. My name was spelled wrong and it looked like a photocopy. After making 4-5 calls I finally get someone on the phone to discuss the matter. Ironically, the person I was spoke to was the clerk at the precinct that actually took the complaint. When she pulled it up, the first words out of her mouth were “I remember this guy.” Of course, I asked her why and she said, “because I knew by talking with him and reading the complaint that he was full of it.” She went on to say “I thought to myself, I bet you this guy was fired and is retaliating.” I asked her when it was filed and she tells me Monday the 9th at about 1030 AM. I tell her that he was fired at about 7:30 am that morning. She tells me that she took the complaint to the DA and voiced her concerns. Of course the DA (being the stupid bitch she was) didn’t care, accepted the complaint and filed the charges. After speaking with the clerk, she tells me to come in the following Wednesday to speak with the DA and see if I can get it dropped. I go with my HR Manager that following Wednesday with signed statements from several people that were in the area and despite that, the stupid bitch DA wouldn’t hear it because they were not notarized. She tells me that has two witnesses attesting to the complaint and unless I can have them sign a statement saying otherwise, I was stuck. Problem is I said, one of the witnesses he listed, WAS THE HR MANAGER standing next to me. At that point she says, “Well he has the another witness listed so it’s her word against his.” So again, I need a signed and notarized statement from him saying it didn’t happen. Problem is, it was the supervisor from above that was listed and these two are good friends to begin with! After many discussions with this idiot including him making statements to no less than five people that it didn’t happen, he refused to give me a signed statement stating otherwise. Flash forward: The company refused to take responsibility at first claiming that the charges were against me and not the company. It was explained to them several times that I was acting well within my duties and responsibilities and was protecting the company and that it WAS their responsibility. They were told that with my background and my career, charges on my record would be devastating to my livelihood. After a whole lot of back peddling, they finally agreed to pay a portion of the attorney’s fees for the attorney I went out and hired immediately following their refusal to step in and handle this. However, I think they only did this once they realized they could be sued for failing to handle this matter before it reached this point. We go to the first hearing in Feb and the DA (stupid bitch) still refuses to dismiss. At this point, I have no choice but to go to jury trial or hope for a dismissal in the meantime. All the while now for the last 5 months now I have had this hanging over my head. Not real sure what would happen and having very little faith in the justice system to this point anyway given that we had even reached this point (which according to EVERYONE I talked to was a freaking mystery in and of itself). Last week I have four employees (including HR) subpoenaed. I send the attorney a mountain of evidence including the idiot’s write-ups, notes and denial of his unemployment claims by the EEOC. My goal was to go in there and be ready to rumble. I arrive with a small glimmer of hope that either the idiot, the supervisor or the DA won’t show up. While I didn’t get the first two, the third was the charm. Seems that they switched out the DA’s in the last few months so I was dealing with someone that had at least more common sense than the first bitch did. So we sit there patiently waiting our turn. The DA calls the idiot in, then calls the supervisor in, then calls HR in, then my attorney. My attorney returns and says that the DA has agreed to dismiss the case as long as I take an Anger Management course. She said “No way, that’s not fair since nothing happened and we spent all this time, money and effort on building the case.” She asks for him to speak to the other three witnesses. He agrees and she returns a short bit later and says he is thinking about dismissing the charges but will let us know in a bit. About ten minutes later, my attorney returns and tells me that he has dismissed the case. The weight is lifted and I can breathe again. So as I watch this d-bag leave, I look him in the eye and he doesn’t even look at me. All the while I am contemplating my next step which is a massive lawsuit against everyone in the company that allowed this to happen and refused to do anything about it. YUP Lody’s not going to stand there and allow them to get away with this. No sir, he’s gonna cash in on this one. STAY TUNED Last edited by Lody; 07-13-2012 at 03:23 PM.. |
07-13-2012, 03:03 PM | #2 |
Enemy Penetrator
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: New England
Posts: 2,502
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You're right, that was a long read.
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07-13-2012, 03:11 PM | #3 |
Hisstank.Com General
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Atlanta
Posts: 11,379
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But, it didn't take anywhere near 8 months to read it.
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07-13-2012, 05:20 PM | #4 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Marysville, ca
Posts: 4,498
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yeah more like 10 minutes maybe and i was switching pages between paragraphs
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07-13-2012, 07:53 PM | #5 |
G.I.Juggernaut
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: gun and bibleland,western PA
Posts: 1,177
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yikes,if i had that happen to me,i'd probably take those anger managment classes as i would be a big furious ball of rage.actually i feel that way just reading this.
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07-13-2012, 08:02 PM | #6 |
Question Authority
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Maine
Posts: 12,980
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Quote:
I'm guessing that your time with this company is just about done anyway. Subpoenaing the HR Manager doesn't go over well, I'm guessing... |
07-13-2012, 08:04 PM | #7 |
of The Hapa Nation
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Hapan, where the YKGOQA roam free
Posts: 11,271
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Doesn't sound like the company is worth working for. Maybe bide your time until you can move on.
If your lawsuit works out, you might not have to work for a while, if at all...
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07-13-2012, 08:08 PM | #8 |
Crimson Guard
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Marysville, ca
Posts: 4,498
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Quote:
in fact i have personally heard stories in my company of people getting fired, sued, won and are still unemployed due to them not being able to secure another job.
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07-13-2012, 08:30 PM | #9 |
Banned
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Boston, MA
Posts: 19,093
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Quote:
Man...don't do that. Take your victory, let it go, and move on. Doing that would make you no better than that jackass in your story. Besides, they're gonna cover some of the attorney fees. I tell ya what - MY company wouldn't do that!
I'm guessing that your time with this company is just about done anyway. Subpoenaing the HR Manager doesn't go over well, I'm guessing... Quote:
They won't have a choice but to settle with me. They are guilty of negligence and creating and maintaining a hostile work environment. They coprporate HR person even asked my HR manager if she thinks I would sue them. Quote:
and the double edge sword kicks in because no company would ever hire him again in fear of being sued
in fact i have personally heard stories in my company of people getting fired, sued, won and are still unemployed due to them not being able to secure another job. |
07-13-2012, 09:00 PM | #10 |
G.I.Juggernaut
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: gun and bibleland,western PA
Posts: 1,177
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hostile work enviroment,reminds me.there is a tree cutting company out of ohio thats been workin here in western pa.they keep their vehicles down the road and fill up on gas at sheetz every morning as we always fill up about the same time.they are always yelling and scream at each other.dont know if its same guys but i roll my eyes and laugh.show me a work place without issues.
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