I want to try to make this as short as possible but my apologies if it turns out to be long rant. So, my wife works as an enrollment counselor for an college. Well she did until today when they called her in and let her go at the end of the day. Not much of a reason for why and to make things worse, my wife is almost 8 months pregnant. For the past week my wife has been "under investigation" for "manipulating the system". What that means is that her manager feels like she was making too many personal calls and in one particular instance, made 30 consecutive calls within a 30min time frame (she called a store nearby trying to figure out when they closed but the phone kept being busy). Therefore because they calculate "talk time" on the phone they feel she was manipulating. I guess. It dosnt make sense to me. She has never done anything wrong or gotten written up for anything at this job. Nothing. Why wasnt she ever given a warning or talked to about it? Co-workers of hers were given write ups for other, worse things but my wife didn't receive one. Also, is "talk time" really that big of an issue to fire someone over? Making a few, at most, personal calls a day is not going to stop someone from doing their job to fullest. Especially not my wife. She worked her but off even given the fact that she was pregnant and had to work late some nights. Who fires a pregnant woman, 2 months from labor, without a warning or without a good reason? How is my wife supposed to fine another job when any company can see she is pregnant and she will need time off as soon as she starts? My feeling is that there is more to it than just a little mistake ... I think the company wanted to save a little money. My wife was getting her school paid for plus she was going to go on disability soon because of pregnancy. The company will never admit that those had something to do with it but you can can not convince me that they didn't atleast think about those things. So here is my questions ... My wife has already filed for unemployment but what else can we do about it? Should I get a lawyer? Can we file for grievance? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
I would seek legal assistance for sure. Dont know what the laws are like over there, but here in Australia an employer wouldnt be able to get away with that crap.
i don't know the legal remedies, but if the situation is as you've described, the company was likely facing layoffs, and seized the opportunity to fire her now so they wouldn't have to pay disability or severance. i'm sure others here can weigh in on what you can/should do about it. fwiw, i lost my job each time my wife was pregnant, and although it was scary initially, it worked out eventually.
It is very risky to fire under those circumstances. there is a pregnancy discrimination act that is tough on employers. Talk to an attorney.
Sad story, I would defiantly be making a phone call to a lawyer. It would seem they would have to have more provocation than merely personal calls, and with no warning's, I would think there might be some legal precedent.
Wow, that sucks basso. Sorry to hear that, but glad it worked out. As for the original poster, that definitely seems shady to me. Did this happen in Texas?
Well if anything you need to apply for Cobra right away so that her insurance continues.. Yes it's a crap load but it is still a lot less than paying for a birthing procedure/hospital/medicine/etc... Then hire a lawyer because what they did was totally in the wrong and you probably can prove those phone calls.. It's going to take a lot more than 30 min phone calls to fire on a manipulation of the system technicality and get away with it. By the way what college? I know this is the Rambo way but have you thought about calling the local papers/twittering/ digg / reddit? If it even gets a whiff of national publicity that school is screwed.. I would probably wait for a lawyer first then go media crazy on thier sorry assess..
i wonder how much does a company monitor its workers. too many phone calls? i am sure everyone at work look at internet all the time. maybe phone calls cost company money? they should definitely warned her first. good luck.
what was the call about? was it important? if the phone was really busy and the call was important it should be okay the phone records should show that your wife didn't actually hold a conversation the whole 30 minutes
Texas is an "at will" work state...meaning they hire you, you can work there if you want, but they can also fire you for whatever reason they want. someone correct me if i'm wrong. sorry to hear about your situation man.
I'd definitely get some lawyer consultation on this. It just sounds way too shady. Do it while your wife is still pregnant! Good luck man.
Lawyer might not help much, especially if it's a small business (50 or less) - they are exempt from some of the pregnancy firing laws (FMLA). This happened to my neighbors as well - and it sucks. They were advised that it's damn near impossible to prove this type of discrimination in court unless you have recent glowing performance reviews and (for example) a job posting gets put out shortly thereafter. As for the other complaint that the phone calls were bogus complaints - Texas is employ at-will. Not much you can do there either. Sounds like the employer covered his ass on the firing this way too. Basically, I recommend you **** on the hood of his car and move on.
Yeah, but I don't think 'any reason' includes because you're black or a woman or handicap, etc. Not sure what being pregnant would be counted as but firing a pregnant woman to save money has to be against some law.
My advice is to move on. A lawyer might be to land some $$$, but it would be a long term hassle, at a time in your life where you do not need that.
That sucks man. The same thing happened to my bro-in-law when my sister got pregnant. She got laid off as soon as her boss found out she was pregnant. And they are both lawyers! I would say their marriage was stronger after they got through that ordeal.
