Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
There is absolutely no requirement for an employer to provide a reason to terminate an employee in New York State, or most other states. Without extenuating circumstances NY will not pay unemployment to a worker who quits their job.
(Regardless of what anyone from the Midwest might advise.)
So, this employer gets to get away with firing someone over a personal / non-work related issue, and on top of that, with conflicts of interest and unprofessionalism involved?
That doesn't sound right, at all.
Surely along the spectrum of law he/they can be held accountable for this. I refuse to believe, as backwards as this country is, that you can't slam them with a lawsuit or something similar.
So, long story short, I got fired today from a job I loved. I was there more than five years.
I live in NY so whether the reasoning behind the firing was just/unjust fair/unfair, etc. has no bearing. My immediate supervisor hired a female and they began a relationship outside of work. It began to effect team morale and everyone felt pretty on edge about the whole situation. Me having seniority on the shift led people to come to me to go to our department manager to do something.
It was a mess. He said, she said and then I took the fall.
I had never been disciplined and I'm a good worker. My manager and the head of HR excused themselves in the middle of firing me, and offered to accept my resignation instead, effective immediately. Apparently they waited to see if I would accept my fate professionally, which I did. They also said they would authorize unemployment benefits and my manager wrote me a recommendation letter and said any calls he received he would give me a good reference, explaining that he would tell them 'he wasn't sure why I left'.
I was the defacto supervisor on the shift, as our actual supervisor was off with this co-worker. I was respected among my peers and I'm feeling really upset but I've shoved all those bad emotions into a neat compartment in my brain and I am ready to get to work first thing in the morning finding a new job.
My wife had a baby four months ago. She's freaking out. I'm trying my best to comfort her. I told her I wouldn't be out of work long and I will find something quickly.
In all honesty I'm freaking out inside but I'm trying to hold it together.
Any suggestions/tips/encouragement for a less-then-24-hour fired/forced resignation worker?
This is terrible. I am so sorry that this happened to you. I wish you the best of luck!
So, long story short, I got fired today from a job I loved. I was there more than five years.
I live in NY so whether the reasoning behind the firing was just/unjust fair/unfair, etc. has no bearing. My immediate supervisor hired a female and they began a relationship outside of work. It began to effect team morale and everyone felt pretty on edge about the whole situation. Me having seniority on the shift led people to come to me to go to our department manager to do something.
It was a mess. He said, she said and then I took the fall.
I had never been disciplined and I'm a good worker. My manager and the head of HR excused themselves in the middle of firing me, and offered to accept my resignation instead, effective immediately. Apparently they waited to see if I would accept my fate professionally, which I did. They also said they would authorize unemployment benefits and my manager wrote me a recommendation letter and said any calls he received he would give me a good reference, explaining that he would tell them 'he wasn't sure why I left'.
I was the defacto supervisor on the shift, as our actual supervisor was off with this co-worker. I was respected among my peers and I'm feeling really upset but I've shoved all those bad emotions into a neat compartment in my brain and I am ready to get to work first thing in the morning finding a new job.
My wife had a baby four months ago. She's freaking out. I'm trying my best to comfort her. I told her I wouldn't be out of work long and I will find something quickly.
In all honesty I'm freaking out inside but I'm trying to hold it together.
Any suggestions/tips/encouragement for a less-then-24-hour fired/forced resignation worker?
Here is a lesson. Like others have said, stay out of people's personal businesses that you should not be involved in. Pretend like you do not know.
Remember your boundaries. Your co-workers are not your friends. Once your work hours are over, you have your own personal life separate from your professional life and do not start going out with co-workers. However, if it is one of those occasional situations where something really good happened at the company and it calls for celebration or if it is a once a year thing like a holiday dinner or whatever, then maybe. But would be very careful to not to go too many of those.
If you do decide to become friends with co-workers, then you should only do it if you have left the company in good terms and after a certain amount of time has passed like more than a year since you left, then maybe it can be okay to be friends with them and hang out with them, but they would now be your former co workers. However, you still would have to be careful to not spend too much time with them and only make it as a once in a while thing like every several months or once a year.
Also, the other employees coming up to complain about it should have also stayed out of it as well. They also put their jobs at risk by doing something like that as well.
You should have told the employees coming up to you and been honest with them that it will cause problems if someone is making a big deal out of it. Being that you had seniority, you should have told them to leave it alone and that everything will be fine.
However, if that does not work and they keep hassling you to do something about it continuously, then you know something bad will happen if you get involved, so better just look for another job and start fresh.
Use your judgment in the future when you are in other jobs. If you feel something does not feel right or if the supervisor or staff are not appreciating your hard work and only picking on your bad traits, then start looking for another job.
My suggestion is, just let them fire you and you get unemployment. You cannot trust them with that after they put you through. While you collect unemployment and seeking new jobs, spend like one day a week doing volunteer work somewhere, so you have something active on resume, you keep yourself active and can gain a new reference.
If you are being interviewed for future jobs, do not use them for reference and use other references you already have that you know you can use. If they ask why you stopped working for the company, tell them you were let go, however shall they keep asking in detail, tell them because the company did restructuring. Hopefully they will not ask more in detail, but if they shall, tell them they changed the position responsibilities and wanted a more advanced level manager.
So, this employer gets to get away with firing someone over a personal / non-work related issue, and on top of that, with conflicts of interest and unprofessionalism involved?
That doesn't sound right, at all.
Surely along the spectrum of law he/they can be held accountable for this. I refuse to believe, as backwards as this country is, that you can't slam them with a lawsuit or something similar.
When someone files for unemployment, the state unemployment office contacts the employer and obtains information such as date and reason for separation, and how much the person was paid upon separation including any vacation pay and severance. This is standard and geography has nothing to do with it.
Sure, employer can lie about things but that's another discussion.
As far as a lawsuit, there has to be grounds.
We don't have the whole story about OP's situation. Just pieces.
By the way, not knowing why they wanted to fire you can make a difference. They may want you to resign because they have no legal grounds to fire you, and they know it. They aren't doing this because they like you.
In some employment situations, such as working abroad in a non-English speaking country (such as ESL), people do become friends with their coworkers (as they are the ones who speak the same language in that foreign country). That means they should be especially careful in how they deal with them.
Quote:
Originally Posted by toby2016
Here is a lesson. Like others have said, stay out of people's personal businesses that you should not be involved in. Pretend like you do not know.
Remember your boundaries. Your co-workers are not your friends. Once your work hours are over, you have your own personal life separate from your professional life and do not start going out with co-workers. However, if it is one of those occasional situations where something really good happened at the company and it calls for celebration or if it is a once a year thing like a holiday dinner or whatever, then maybe. But would be very careful to not to go too many of those.
If you do decide to become friends with co-workers, then you should only do it if you have left the company in good terms and after a certain amount of time has passed like more than a year since you left, then maybe it can be okay to be friends with them and hang out with them, but they would now be your former co workers. However, you still would have to be careful to not spend too much time with them and only make it as a once in a while thing like every several months or once a year.
Also, the other employees coming up to complain about it should have also stayed out of it as well. They also put their jobs at risk by doing something like that as well.
You should have told the employees coming up to you and been honest with them that it will cause problems if someone is making a big deal out of it. Being that you had seniority, you should have told them to leave it alone and that everything will be fine.
However, if that does not work and they keep hassling you to do something about it continuously, then you know something bad will happen if you get involved, so better just look for another job and start fresh.
Use your judgment in the future when you are in other jobs. If you feel something does not feel right or if the supervisor or staff are not appreciating your hard work and only picking on your bad traits, then start looking for another job.
My suggestion is, just let them fire you and you get unemployment. You cannot trust them with that after they put you through. While you collect unemployment and seeking new jobs, spend like one day a week doing volunteer work somewhere, so you have something active on resume, you keep yourself active and can gain a new reference.
If you are being interviewed for future jobs, do not use them for reference and use other references you already have that you know you can use. If they ask why you stopped working for the company, tell them you were let go, however shall they keep asking in detail, tell them because the company did restructuring. Hopefully they will not ask more in detail, but if they shall, tell them they changed the position responsibilities and wanted a more advanced level manager.
By the way, not knowing why they wanted to fire you can make a difference. They may want you to resign because they have no legal grounds to fire you, and they know it. They aren't doing this because they like you.
They certainly do have legal grounds to fire the OP.
So, this employer gets to get away with firing someone over a personal / non-work related issue, and on top of that, with conflicts of interest and unprofessionalism involved?
That doesn't sound right, at all.
Surely along the spectrum of law he/they can be held accountable for this. I refuse to believe, as backwards as this country is, that you can't slam them with a lawsuit or something similar.
"New York State is generally considered to be an "employment at will" state, which means that a private sector employer can pretty much hire and fire as he or she pleases and a discharged employee usually will have no legal recourse even when the discharge is unfair or unreasonable."
Most states are at-will states but some may have certain exclusions.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
