How To Fight Back After Being Fired (letters, employee, secretary)

[Clmtyne]

I'm a 40 year old African American Male, who worked in the Health Care Industry for 9 years. This was my first time working in Health Care on this scale and although it took me a while to get use to the job, the people and the protocol, I admit I had a lot of problems from the beginning. One good thing I can saw was that the supervisor was very nice and gave me a chance. After 3 years of being there I reported a physician for Sexual Harassment, and Employee Relations got into it, and everything in my life in health care changed. I was previously having problems with the nursing staff, as to the way they talked to me, they way they treated me in general, inwhich I saw as harassment, and the administration on every level treated me as if I was crazy or something. My immediate supervisor was the only one who actually would defend me and got to bat for me. As the Sexual Harassment issues were being investigated, I was asked to provide a list of witnesses, and none of the nurses standing directly in my face at the time of the incident stated they knew anything. And according to Employee Relations, those nurses stated they didn't want to get involved. During this same time, I was accused by several nurses on staff of visiting Inapporiate websites at work, and all of the same nurses ran to the supervisor and Employee Relations to report me. Employee Relations ate it up and pursued it with a vengeance. They took the allegations of me visiting "Inapporiate Websites" and used that to over shadow the Sexual Harassment by the physician. The writing was on the wall that they expected me to resign, and the Director of Employee Relations told me this in a telephone conversation, I was expected to resign. Also during this time, the director of Employee Relations harassed me several times- what you gone do (meaning about reporting the doctor for the harassment). I never gave him an answer. He also tried to force me to say I did visit apporiate websites at work, where he also stated that he could not prove I did it. But this gets better. I ended up receiving a Final Written Warning for something that couldn't be proven. There after I contacted the EEOC, NAACP, the Physicians Licience Board and several other organizations. No one really did anything.

To get on with this, while I continued to stay in this job, the nurses and supervisors were treating me awlful, but I prayed and stood my ground. The managers changed, the staff kept changing, but I stayed right there. Because I received the Final Written Warning, I was not allowed to Transfer, had my raises frozen for 18 months, and was told that I was not allowed to request meetings with the president of the company, could not use a tape recorder in meeting with management, and could not bring someone with me to meetings, without the permission of management. I had requested to be moved out of the unit, but management told me over and over you have a Final Written Warning and are not allowed to transfer, although Harassment by the staff was on going and constant. So I was trapped and the only way they wanted me to get out was to quit. But again I stayed, and when they did make any offer to move was not because I asked, but because they felt it would work for them. Only thing was was that they wanted me to move to an area that was totally different from where I was working and twice the responsibility. Thee nursing staff told management that they didn't trust me to do my job and the EEO Officer felt their pain and decided to reassign me to where I was already working. This new assignment was within the same service and I made a point to bring it to their attention, and they then said nothing.

I went to a meeting with the EEO Officer and before we even began the meeting for a developmental plan, I asked about using a tape recorder, and she screamed at me "we are not using a tape recorder". I was more than shocked, so I told her alright, then we ain't having no meeting". She looked at me like she could cut my head off. I then got in the elevator and went back to my work area. That same EEO Officer returned a phone call to me and after I asked her about standard rules and regulations, she told me they were rules that any organization would find reasonable, I then began asking her you yelling at me- is that reasonable? She didn't know what to say. Leading into my final years there were several squabbles with supervisors, including being yelled at two times by a supervisor and later going through an internal Grievance with that supervisor, where Employee Relations went to bat for her regardless of what I said. And also another incident with a supervisor where she conspired with Employee Relations to terminate me for her ideas of Insubordination. I have her notes that were responded to by Employee Relations proving my claims of Conspiracy, and when I took this to Legal at the Institution, they denied it and told me they agreed with what Employee Relations was doing.

This is not the end, but to get to my point of writing this story, I was terminated last year for Failure to Attend A Mandatory Meeting, and the reasoning was that I had not communicated with the supervisor to let her know that I could not attend. There were to my understanding 4 meetings (of the same) and I told her if you knew that I didn't attend one of the last 3 you should have come to me and told me "hey we are having a meeting and you need to come", but that never happened. It was simple, I didn't know about the meeting. When we both talk with the Unemployment Securities Commission, she (the supervisor) admitted, she had no proof to say that I received emails or other about the meeting. So they had no intention on telling me about the meeting, and used this opportunity to terminate me. Thereafter I wrote everything up and took it back to the EEOC, where it was investigated again, from 1999 until 2008. During this time, the employer denied my unemployment, wrote 5 days after I was terminated that I was Permanently Ineligible For Rehire and I had not even filed for a Grievance. Didn't file for a Grievance until two weeks after I was terminated. When I read the report from the EEOC, it had several inaccuracies about the accounts and the supervisor who terminated me had changed her story totally. I was granted the right to SUE by the Federal Government, but I had two problems. One was that I didn't have another job and didn't have the money to pursue it and 2, although I had an attorney, he was really no help at all. I did all the work, while he was slowly talking me out of it. But I found out later that although he knew Employment Law, it didn't make him an expert in this situation because he was not familiar with the employer. It's hard to win this kind of case when you don't know who you are fighting. It's extremely important that you know how the company operates. The Law is one thing, but that personal relationship is something different.

Fighting Back- I admit that I was angry and bitter, but I knew at some point this had to end because of the past. But I'm glad that I didn't go though with a Law Suit because I have plans. Plans are to write a book about my 9 year career in Health Care. One good thing I did was to document my entire 9 year career, meaning wrote and responded to all harassment issues, and kept a record of all the responses and letters received from the employer. Plans are to also create a online association to protect people who are going through or have been through similar situations. My job title was a health care secretary or clerk and it's sad to say, but in the health care profession, clerks and secretaries are the backbone of the units or floors they work on, but are very under appreciated. I want to create a organization for secretaries and clerks in the health care field so they don't receive this same treatment. If you are having simular troubles, I would love to hear about them, so together we can create the respect we so deserve. And tell me that you would buy the book.

[desertsun41]

I know you are just venting because you are mad as hell but no one is going to read your book you just wrote. Most of us will glance over it and get the point. The truth is you are just a number. Your number might be higher if you are a so called minority but to an employer you are just a number. We all like to think we are important and that we are doing a really good job and that our jobs are valuble but never forget that you are just a number. An expendable number.

Forget it and move on to another accounting page of of another slave driver who treats people like crap and pays them off in peanuts and box tops.

Good luck out there my friend. Just lose the hate towards that employer, dont use the race card and move on. You are not the only one who was fired and you will not be the only one to want revenge.

I was fired from my first job about 35 years ago. I got my revenge real good and to this day those _______s will always remember what I did to them. I also learned a lesson that day. I vowed never ever to work for some clown at the expense of my own time and pride....ever again. I kept that promise to myself.

[Houston3]

Sounds to me that the OP may have stepped on a few to many toes... and lost the war....

[NCyank]

Originally Posted by Clmtyne

And tell me that you would buy the book.

Uh, no. I didn't even make it through the entire post...I can't imagine entire chapters written like that. Maybe a catchy and succinct country western song would be more appropriate than a book.

[Nikeo]

Seems to blame everyone, with no fault of oneself.

[Clmtyne]

What kind of fault are you implying. Since when is it ok for an employer to allow his/her staff to scream, yell, and mistreat employees when the polices strickly say " we do not tollerate any work place violence, difference in treatment to employees". That we, the employer are an equal opportunity employer, and any such actions should be reported to the EEO Officer, the immediate supervisors or Employee Relations? And after these actions are reported to those in question, they take sides and began acting the same way. Granted we are all adult, but unfortunately when it comes to someone with this problem and everyone is aganist them, the employer oviously took sides to protect themselves from outside action from the employee. Do you feel that this employee was treated in a respectable manner and the policies and procedures were followed to the tee? Far from it and regardless, right is right and wrong and wrong, and this employer was dead wrong. You can do the right thing, the wrong thing or what ever you want to do and this employer did whatever they wanted to do. So how can you fault the employee for the wrong actions of the employer?

[JS1]

One time I worked at a place that was unfortunate enough to hire someone like Clmtyne. She whined to HR at the drop of a hat, accused her manager of being unfair, blah blah blah. Meanwhile she would chat on-line, talk on the phone to her friends, rush through her work and screw it up, yet in her mind, she did nothing wrong and was constantly mistreated by management.

Like the hospital, at this place it was difficult to fire people. Thank goodness she quit. We were going crazy fixing her screwups and dealing with her drama.

[Huckleberry3911948]

i will be very blunt.
by reading your post and nothing else.
you are a player wanabee.
its not fighting you need to learn.

[yellowsnow]

You worked in this horrid place for years? Why did you stay? You were a ward clerk and those jobs are almost always available.

Sorry, but I don't think there is much of a market for what you want to sell. We've most all been where you have been. It's pretty hard to find someone in the workforce who hasn't been discriminated against or treated unfairly. There's something 'wrong' with almost everyone.

Do yourself a huge favor. Move on and bury this baggage. There's too much good and joy in life to waste yours bogged down in an ugly situation compounded by poor decisions. Move on to something you can enjoy.

[annerk]

Originally Posted by Nikeo

Seems to blame everyone, with no fault of oneself.

My thoughts exactly. Just the fact that the first sentence mentioned race is a red flag.