tell me if you think i deserved to get fired?

Question

I worked there for a total of 18 years. Starting a few months ago my son required care at St. Jude's in Memphis. I missed a lot of work, but they were seemingly supportive. When i returned to work i was late sometimes because of having to take care of my son and also my partner who had a massive stroke in the middle of all this. I was fired for having a poor attitude after telling them that one of their instructional videos was not realistic and for supposedly being overly critical of another department because they never did what they were supposed to. So please your honest opinion: did i deserve to be fired?

someone asked was it my job to critique other departments. Sort of. At this same meeting where i said the video was cheesy, we were asked to make a chart of what it looked like to be ready in other departments. I told them what it looked like to be ready in the department they assigned me to and they didn't like it because i pointed out things the other department was particularly remiss at doing.

tc asked if there was more to the story. honestly, i'm not trying to paint myself in a falsely positive light. I am opinionated, but i have been for my entire time there. It's not like i became someone else. Same old me, the health problems of my family probably did add to my negative views, but come on, shouldn't i have been cut a little slack, especially since my general manager hugged me on a regular basis and told me that my job was safe and secure and to take care of my family.

Answer 1

Was it your job to be critical of other departments? Was it your job to critique the instructional video?

All of the stress in your personal life appears to have been having an effect on your performance in the workplace. However justified the reasons were to you, you were no longer punctual. Your attitude was sour (likely due to your being tired/stressed). This all after your company allowed you to miss a lot of work. If this is all there is to the story, then I would have to say yes. Employers do not like to have people bad mouthing anyone, or anything. It is bad for morale.

Answer 2

Some employers do not care about your life out of work. They just want the people they pay to show up on time and do what they are told. I had a manager just like that. If you look at it from there side...they could pay someone the same wage, if not less, to do the same thing you did and have them there on time and not talking back. (even if it was just input)But if you still believe you were wrongly fired you can contact your local police station to find out whom you should be talking to. because I forget the number...it used to be posted where i was working before....good luck

Answer 3

If this is the whole story it doesn't seem like you should have gotten fired. It sounds like they used the critical events in your life to get rid of you. Do you have an EAP office in your company (Employee Assistance Program)? If you discussed the family problems with EAP then they wouldn't have grounds to fire you based upon the illnesses in your family. Are you sure there's nothing more to the story?

Answer 4

This may seem cruel and I'm not saying it reflects your case, but as one person put it, "companies are not in the business of being hmo's." There are people who for half or more of their "career" are not at work. What starts as good intentions just wears the employer down and eventually they seek reasons to fire the person. Sorry, but it's a fact of life.

Answer 5

Depending on the fine details and if an employment handbook has catchy details, as well as your state and federal laws, you may want to consult with an attorney.

Answer 6

if its like you tell it (and theres always 2 sides to all these stories), then you would have grounds to institute a case of unfair dismissal against your employer