[vacoder]

I have known companies whose policy when terminating an employee is not to give any reason. Often it is small companies with no true human resource administrator. They choose this method because;

1. The supervisor may inadvertently give some cause that would violate labor laws such as EEOC.

2. People don't always respond well to criticism and the termination meeting may escalate and get ugly.

This is not to say I aggee with this policy.

Of course, there is a "reason" for the termination though that reason may or may not be a rational one or founded in good business sense. Just like there are bad or incompetent employees the same holds true for supervisors and employers. One not uncommon "bad reason" I have witnessed is nepotism.

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

everyone i've known that has been fired deserved it.

+1

[City Guy997S]

Originally Posted by huckleberry3911948

nobody gets fired for nothing. But many states now have employment at will. Which circumvents eeoc. Eeoc is a employee wmd, #1 non union employee weapon. Biz is fighting back. They are struggling and are looking for new weapons to get rid of dead wood and eeoc is #1 obstacle for getting rid of worthless workers. Employment at will law seems to trump eeoc..
Employment is 85% attitude. For many that is sorely lacking the me generation and the entitlement people pose a huge liability to business.
Btw employer love recessions, they enable you to get rid of slackers u should have fired years ago.

+1

[boxus]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

nobody gets fired for nothing. but many states now have employment at will. which circumvents EEOC. EEOC is a employee WMD, #1 non union employee weapon. biz is fighting back. they are struggling and are looking for new weapons to get rid of dead wood and EEOC is #1 obstacle for getting rid of worthless workers. employment at will law seems to trump EEOC..
employment is 85% attitude. for many that is sorely lacking the me generation and the entitlement people pose a huge liability to business.
btw employer love recessions, they enable you to get rid of slackers u should have fired years ago.

You are incorrect. The EEOC is not an obstacle for terminating employees. The EEOC enforces federal law regarding EEO in the work place, nothing more. Given the amount of firings and layoffs that have occurred, I seriously doubt employers have their hands tied on terminating people.

"employment at will law seems to trump EEOC.."

This makes no sense at all. A company can terminate anyone for any reason, as long as it is not for discriminatory reasons such as on the basis of race, gender, national origin, veteran status, etc. Employment at will has nothing to do with this.

Employers do not like recessions (I can tell you are not an employer), businesses do not like discretionary spending decreasing for any reason as over 70 percent of the economy depends on it. A business is free to terminate any employee for any reason as long as it is not discriminatory.

Do you even know what the EEOC does? Do you know of other federal agencies that involve themselves on EEO policies? You knowledge is seriously lacking.

[boxus]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Everyone I've known that has been fired deserved it.

Key word is "everyone you know". Everyone I have known that has been fired has deserved it also except for one.

That does not mean everyone that ever has been fired has deserved it, there are thousands of reinstatements that have occurred. Even Steve Jobs was fired from his company once.

Heck, in a competitor of my own company, they had a small scandal where a manager fired someone to keep them from blowing the whistle on his abuse of his company travel card and stealing funds out of the petty cash fund. This low level accountant who put these things in the journal noticed it, brought it up, then was fired by the manager. Of course the person got their job back and changes were made in accountability, but this is just one small example of someone being fired that did not deserve it, they were actually doing their job.

Then on top of it, sometimes the company just needs to let people go, and need to do so, that does not mean anyone "deserved" getting fired, it is just the company did not have the funds to retain them.

[MovedfromFL]

This is a really poor way to go about things from an HR perspective.

First, it leaves the company wide open to lawsuits. By telling the person "There have been no complaints, your co-workers love you, and your skills are excellent", it implies that they might just think you have become too expensive on the group health insurance (cancer perhaps?) or you're pregnant, or you're too old, etc. ALL illegal grounds for dismissal.

Second, unless the company has documented some kind of performance deficiency, I would think this worker would be eligible to receive unemployment. This in turn drives up the employer's rate for a long time in the future. (keep in mind that just because they told her one thing does not mean they wouldn't show up at the unemployment hearing with all kinds of other accusations)

I used to work in HR and what usually happened was a series of warnings and documented steps before a person was fired. You always want a paper trail. The exact steps should be spelled out in the employee handbook. Why would you fire someone and tell her "your skills are excellent"?

[MovedfromFL]

Maybe this person knows too much about her manager? (ie in a position to blow the whistle, or just plain overshadowing the manager and making her look bad?)

Employment at will does NOT trump state/ federal labor law. The EEOC gets involved when an employee feels he/she as been terminated for an illegal reason (race, sex, pregnancy, being called to serve your country via Nat'l Guard, etc).

I reiterate that this company seems to have very poor HR procedures. (and poorly trained managers)

When I worked in HR, I only saw a few people fired (at several different firms) and the reasons were things like drunk on the job, operating your own company when you are supposed to be making outbound sales calls, repeated no call/ no show, etc.

The OP's friend needs to find out from the manager what kind of reference the company will provide. This will be vital to her job search.

[theredsnowman]

Originally Posted by boxus

Key word is "everyone you know". Everyone I have known that has been fired has deserved it also except for one.

That does not mean everyone that ever has been fired has deserved it, there are thousands of reinstatements that have occurred. Even Steve Jobs was fired from his company once.

Heck, in a competitor of my own company, they had a small scandal where a manager fired someone to keep them from blowing the whistle on his abuse of his company travel card and stealing funds out of the petty cash fund. This low level accountant who put these things in the journal noticed it, brought it up, then was fired by the manager. Of course the person got their job back and changes were made in accountability, but this is just one small example of someone being fired that did not deserve it, they were actually doing their job.

Then on top of it, sometimes the company just needs to let people go, and need to do so, that does not mean anyone "deserved" getting fired, it is just the company did not have the funds to retain them.

An "old timey" respect for authority leads many people to believe that everybody gets fired for a just and proper reason, but as you so correctly pointed out, this is not always the case.

[crazynip]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry3911948

nobody gets fired for nothing. but many states now have employment at will. which circumvents EEOC. EEOC is a employee WMD, #1 non union employee weapon. biz is fighting back. they are struggling and are looking for new weapons to get rid of dead wood and EEOC is #1 obstacle for getting rid of worthless workers. employment at will law seems to trump EEOC..

EEOC is a federal law, state laws do not and can not circumvent federal laws. You are absolutely wrong.

I dont know where you get your info, but it's pretty flawed. You also seem to listen to too much right wing talk radio based on your views.

[Earnest101]

Originally Posted by JanND

Would the department of labor help at all??
Seems heartless to fire someone w/out any explanation when they have been a good employee.
Mention what she does and where she lives, sometimes people on this forum suggestions and leads to help for job loss.

I'll check them out in this. Thanks.
You say it exactly right: heartless. By the looks of my friend's letter she appears like someone whose heart has just been broken. My guess... individuals she thought she had a reliable rapport with (i.e. her supervisor, etc) have suddenly and bafflingly without any discernable cause or rationale, turned into complete strangers.

Ernie