Hotscot

Would she have known it was a strip joint in advance as opposed to say, a bar?

Steve_

She knew it was a strip club but her understanding of the policy was that it was only not okay if they had a vendor or a client with them, i.e. someone from outside the company or if it was something that had officially been arranged there. Given that they were work colleagues and it wasn't official and it was not on company time it didn't really register that it might be a problem.

And frankly I don't think it was, they were just looking for an angle to get rid of her boss' boss. I just can't wrap my head around getting fired for something that trivial, maybe a letter of reprimand or something.

You wouldn't have any employees left if that approach was taken generally.

Michael

Certain things can irritate a boss. Maybe he doesn't like people working from home and that irritated him. Although she was willing to work at the office, the damage may have already been done. Cell phones are often an irritation but people leave them on when talking to their boss and the phone rings.

scrubbedexpat099

Hmm

So the work connection is what?

Seems really odd.

Steve_

She managed to get hold of someone at HQ who had more info than the HR dept. Apparently one of the people there did file for expenses, which is how they became aware of it and they didn't fire him because he is a "whistleblower" and the reason it's taken so long to come after her is because they initially went after the high ranking guy who was there and that dragged on for months.

This makes no sense, so in talking to the other people who are now being fired themselves they tell her they reckon he did it on purpose to put the knife into his boss because he knew they wanted an excuse to get rid of him, so instant promotion. He probably didn't realize they would fire everyone else there too.

What blows my mind is the more she tells me the greater the lack of any ethical standard there seems to be. It all sounds very Machiavellian.

Steerpike

The fact that she is gay should not be relevant to anything.

If she was the least senior person there, she ought to be able to claim that she was 'expected' to be there; it wasn't a free choice. And she could claim she didn't know what the nature of the place was until she was already there - too late to object.

The fact they offered her alternatives just a few weeks earlier would suggest they were looking for excuses to get rid of her.

I would think HR would settle if she got a lawyer involved.

hungryhorace

^^ This. The US is an appalling country from an employment perspective. The country disgusts me at times. Come back England, mostly all is forgiven.

scrubbedexpat091

It's not just the US, Canada is only marginally better but it all depends on what state your comparing as some states are overall better then Canada, but obviously some states are worse, there is no one size fits all for the US or Canada.

I imagine Mexico isn't all that grand for labor standards either.

If you wan't good labor standards, North America isn't the place to be.

Steve_

She's got a lawyer but the lawyer wants a percentage fee off any settlement. As they already offered her a better severance package just prior to all this happening, she's trying to get that back by using the threat of legal action.

Michael

She may get screwed even more by using a lawyer. The lawyer will probably want a 1/3rd of any settlement including what already the company agreed on and if the case isn't really strong where there is a high probabality of a big judgment against the company, the lawyer isn't going to put in a lot of time and effort.

Hiro11

Yeah, why can't we be more like France, Italy or Spain and run 50% youth unemployment and earn half the PPP-adjusted disposable income? It's disgusting that we have such high employment rates and average incomes. Absolutely disgusting. The system has failed!

Hotscot

Are you deliberately missing the point?

What kind of benefits and protections do you have in your job?

Sally Redux

The place where my husband worked in the US was effectively run like 'Boardwalk Empire'. The amount of backstabbing and use of favours is astonishing.

scrubbedexpat091

A lot of people live well below average income in the US, my guess is you have not worked for 8/hr and try to keep the basics you need to survive...

In the US companies have the upper hand, in Europe it appears employees do, both seem to have gone to an extreme one way or another, but there has to be a common ground we could find.

scrubbedexpat091

I won't back stab co-workers, I know most would back stab me or anyone else in a heart beat to get ahead, but I won't play those games and its silly these sorts of things have to go on, office politics makes me happy I don't work in that kind of work setting anymore.