The Energon Pub

Okay, so I'm not really mad at the Donald. But his catch phrase has taken on a more personal meaning for me. As of yesterday, I have joined the ranks of the unemployed. They actually fire me on a technicality. There you have up to four write ups before they terminate you, but after six months the oldest one is suppose to fall off and the others slide back. I was originally told that my first write up would fall off June 5th, but somewhere after that they changed the policy so that it falls off not after the infraction date but the date you recieve your actual write up. So after being late for work again due to my car breaking down, I thought I would be good since my write up was suppose to have fallen off. But no, yesterday I was called into my managers office to let me know that I have been terminated. I tried to tell them that it wasn't fair since they changed policy that the old write up should have fallen under the old rules (and technically I was right, but whatever). So yes, now I will be standing in the unemployment line waiting for my check. Damn straight I'll collect unemployment on their asses, and I'll drag it out for all its worth. If I felt that I deserved it, I wouldn't even bother, but all my write ups are due to missing work because of my daughter's illness and being with her while she was in a COMA! I'm even considering looking into a lawyer since they said I was ineligable for FMLA during that time - but that's bull because you can't deny FMLA...period. They just don't have to pay for the time off.

This is nothing more than a vent at this point. But I'm hinging on giddy for collecting a check while sitting on my butt, to be slightly annoyed because of the jerk-offs they're being.

Sorry to hear about your bad luck, but remember there's always better jobs out there.

1) A manager can not deny FMLA, unless something really screwy is going on so I would bring a suit over that.

2) I'm not sure what the rules for your state are, but in Illinois you collect unemployement online like I did last summer. That's a whole lot easier than going to the unemployement office.

Thanks Cyberstrike. I actually really liked my job too, and my overall performance was better than average. When I contacted HR yesterday about how long I still have medical coverage, they actually told me "We wish we could pick and choose who we bend the rules for". I was like, "Don't insult me, you fire me on a technicallity." I hate when people are fake, especially in these circumstances.

1) We going to consult a lawyer about that. But from what I'm initially hearing an employer can set a probabtion period before FMLA can be used with the exception of giving birth. And while my second daughter was born at the same time my first was in the hospital, that doesn't matter since I'm the father and not the mother. But as I said, we're going to consult a lawyer first

2) Actually it was pretty easy to start the process just by walking in the door. I walked in and not only applied for another job somewhere else (I may not even get it though), but I started the ball rolling on collecting unemployment which they can backdate to the day of my termination...all within a half-hour. As long as you don't walk in on a monday or the first day of the month, they process pretty quickly.