Fired for trying to protect co. from lawsuit...or is that the real reason?
As an HR Generalist at a local behavioral health company I became aware that an employee was physically threatened by another employee. For those of you who don't know this, the employer is extrememly liable and will be held accountable in cases of any type of harrassment in which they did nothing to protect the employees or their clientelle. What I understood was that the employee was given an opportunity to speak with the Director of the company, and she was allegedly so irate and inconsolable about the whole ordeal that she was escorted out of the building and told not to return.
A few weeks later I learned that she was was still employed, but many of our employees work off-site, which is why I thought she may have gotten away with returning to work without her supervisor having knowledge of her alleged previous behavior.
I began a formal investigation, and when my boss found out about it I was told that I was stirring up trouble that needn't be bothered with and asked to discontinue my investigation. I did discontinue it with some reluctance, as in I expressed my concern for the company's welfare to my boss; I had one final witness to question and did not follow through with the interview because I was asked not to.
The second reason my boss gave for firing me was because a few days earlier we had had a miscommunication about a person I was or was not supposed to hire. This was not the first time this had happened and I mentioned to him that I would like for these things to be in writing from now on so that I don't make any further mistakes. Thereafter, I developed a paper trail with a system to ensure that 1) the most appropriate person for the position was hired and 2) that permission was given by the Director himself to do the hiring via signatures and proper procedures. I had no contact with anyone in accounting and was always very concerned that we need to be more spendthrift, especially after he started telling people to buy their own office supplies and because the only way we could make money for our services was by properly filing them with the appropriate state agency, but inadequate supervision was given to those responsible for performing these tasks, and internal weekly reports were stating that a lot of money had was lost due to blatant disregard for this job duty.
My boss had repeatedly asked me to perform illegal things, and the office manager had done some aggregious hiring illegalities, like not hiring and/ or firing women for being pregnant. The final straw for my boss, I think, was when I refused to hire a buddy of his who tested positive for marijuana. He tried and tried to convince me, even going so far as to give me an obvious forgery of a clean drug screen, which I still would not accept because we had a drug free work-place policy and a contract with the county schools to provide services, including clean drug screens from our employees. If we were caught, even if my boss had asked me to do these things, in a court of law I would still be held responsible for my own actions. Therefore I refused to hire this person.
My boss, the Director, then requested that I type up a letter to a particular group of off-site employees notifying them that they must report for drug testing (our policy was such that they could be tested if there was cause to suspect someone), which I think he made up just to cover his butt in case I reported him to someone, and the next day he let me go citing the two reasons above.
Oh, and now that they can't make payroll they are trying to appeal my unemployment two months after the fact.
Add this link to...
Tell a friend
Comments