Steve_

So anyway, salient story about American work culture I thought I would share:

Friend of mine works (worked) for a very large US corporation that you will definitely have heard of for the past 20 years - and bear in mind at one point she got the Employee of the Year award for her region. So anyway she progressed up through the company but didn't want to transfer to Atlanta, so they let her work remotely from her home. So her boss changed jobs and her new boss wasn't keen on having people work remotely, so HR phoned her up and said she could either take a severance package or go back to her old, significantly lower paid position at the local office.

So after some thought, given the state of the economy, she decided it was better to go back to her old position and maybe look for a new job rather than risk taking the severance.

Two weeks after telling them she would take the option of her old job, HR phone her up and tell her they're investigating a possible violation of company policy, which turned out to be a party her old boss had organized for his staff while she had been on a business trip to Atlanta, which had ended at a strip club. This was back in March. Going to a strip club apparently violates the company ethics code, even though it had happened at the direction of her boss.

So today they phoned her up and told her after review, she is fired and will be contacted next week by HR for an exit interview. No written warning, no disciplinary hearing, zilch, just: "you are terminated effective immediately". They are going to give her some limited severance pay but not what she would have gotten if she'd taken the earlier deal. And because she's been fired for cause, she can't claim unemployment apparently (yes it's an "at-will" State).

Personally I think the person in HR screwed up and should have told her to begin with she was redundant and then went looking for a reason to fire her, but this is not some small company doing it, it's one of the largest HR departments on the face of the planet. Note they've told all of the co-workers she was at this party with not to talk to her.

Hotscot

The state of America employment today...

Mrs Danvers

So I'm assuming that the other people who went to a strip club weren't fired?

scrubbedexpat091

Sucks for sure.

Not sure its much better in Canada, in BC it's pretty easy to fire someone.

Michael

Back in 1983, there were two groups in the engineering department that I was working in. I was the manager of one group and another guy was the manager of the other group. My group was very productive and the other group was tied up in paperwork, meetings, bureaucracy, and company politics. Employees in his group would come to ask for help getting into my group and I was able to get his best employee to my group (she immediately became the most productive person in my group).

Lay offs occurred but none from engineering. The director of Engineering and the General Manager didn't think the other manager was accomplishing anything and wanted to get rid of him but their hands were tied. However with recommendations from the GM, the company allowed for engineers to take a voluntary layoff with severance. There were meetings directed at the other manager and on the day that a decision had to be made, the director of engineer had a talk with the manager and the manager decided to take the voluntary layoff but no other engineers took the voluntary layoff.

Steve_

She doesn't know, because they've been told not to talk to her. She's not even sure how they found out, the only clue she's got is when they initially called her they accidentally mentioned a guy's name but it's someone who works in Atlanta who she barely knows and might have been there but she can't put a face to the name.

So she can't even get a reference now, not a good one anyway, except perhaps from her old boss who left a few months ago.

I'm sure it was just some pretext to get rid of her, I just can't believe they would fire someone for such a minor thing who has worked there for so long.

Mrs Danvers

Yes, it's rough. Perhaps you could give her a reference? One thing I will never forget is a nurse colleague who was fired when she was undergoing chemo for breast cancer. Taking too much time off work and then written up for stupid things that everyone does - for example hanging an IV fifteen minutes late on a stable patient because she was with another in crisis.

Unfortunately once they have someone in their crosshairs they will fire.

Bob

I can. Unfortunately.

BEVS

That's completely disgusting

Is there anything at all she can do?

Hotscot

Unlikely.
Imbalance of power.

Whatever case she could make, she's probably 'right'.

But it all comes down to $$$ and that often determines who 'wins'.

It is bloody infuriating though.

jeepster

"Office Politics", that's why I work for myself. Shoulda Coulda Woulda done it 10 years earlier.

Yup, once they have you in their cross hairs...you're toast.

Hotscot

I agree..been there, done it...

Steve_

No I don't think so, there isn't a union, it's an "at-will" State, she hasn't been fired for anything like discrimination, she's digging out her employment contract but I doubt there's anything in it that will help.

Other than bitching to all and sundry I don't see there's much she can do.

scrubbedexpat099

Not the first time HR have done something stupid. All my stories are UK.

Everybody else at the event must be concerned.

Yorkieabroad

she needs to find out what happened to the others that went to the strip club. If they were guys and still have their jobs...............