I'm about to get fired from my job that I love for attendance issues.?

Question

I feel the company made some very crucial mistakes. I might take this to court. They go by a point system. For a call-out you recieve one occurence. If you are late more than 3 minutes you get a half of an occurence. If you go on Leave Of Absence you get one occurence for up to five days off. And if you tally up 8 occurences within that year, termination occurs! But in the Employees Handbook you recieve when you first get hired, it says: 0-4 occurences you get no corrective actions, your 5th occurence you get Written counseling, 6th written warning, 7th final written warning, and 8th termination! Its company policy to take these corrective action steps. My question to you is, since I got to my 8th occurence they have a right to terminate my employment with the company, but my only corretive action they took was my final written warning. i feel it was unfair that I was unaware that I got this far into my occurences without knowledge of it. What do you think I should do?

They put me on suspension until further investigation. They said they want to make sure that they can't find in fault on their behalf before termination is complete! And also, I got most of my occurences for a surgery I had, doctors' visits, my son's doctors' visits, etc so they said I can bring in documentation on those issues and they'll look over it!

Answer 1

I think you should start showing up to work on time.
They can fire you for no reason at all, you won't win any legal case you have. Move on and start being responsible.

Answer 2

You're right to a point, you should have been given the written warnings. If several of the occurrences were close together, maybe there wasn't time in between to do all that.

On the other hand, you say you were given the employee handbook when you started, saying you will get fired on the 8th occurrence. You must have realized that you had a lot of time off. 8 "occurrences" in a year is really a lot! Was there anything else involved, like some time when you were off and didn't even call? That could push it over the edge.

Are you saying that you DID get the "final written warning" after your 7th occurrence, and still had an 8th after that? That could weaken your case, since it might basically reset the clock on the steps.

There's another issue here also. You don't say where you live. If you are in the US, most states operate under something called employment at will, which means they can fire you without a reason. And employment at will would override the need for them to give all those warnings.

So a suggestion - give them whatever documentation they request, but also be very polite and tell them you really want to keep your job, and will try hard to correct the problems, etc etc etc. If you go in demanding, with a belligerant attitude, you are likely to be gone.

Good luck in getting through this.

Answer 3

If the company is allowing you the opportunity to plead your case by bringing in medical certification for some of the absences then I suggest you do so, and fast. If there are issues for your absences related to a medical condition that need to be taken in to account then maybe you need to get some documentation from your doctor for intermittent leave. If the problems with attendance are more around the tardy to work and such, and you have notice of the policy in your handbook, then you don't have much of a leg to stand on for legal purposes. If you read through your manual I would be there is some language in there that states the company is at will and can terminate the employment relationship with or without notice. Some statement that would negate this process has to be followed to the letter at every step. If you were given a final written warning notice and then had another incident then they are within their rights to terminate you for cause.

Answer 4

Simple, if you don't want to get fired, show up on time. As an employer, I write a schedule and expect you to be there when you're supposed to be. Its not my problem that you a) have doctor's appts; b) your son has doctor's appts; c) you have surgery. I have a business to run. Schedule your appts early enough before work so you can make it on time . Period. End of story. Me as an employer should have to accomodate your being late? I'll just tell my customers to hang on, my employees are all late today because they have other things to do. How long do you think I'd be in business? Your employer is alot more accomodating than I'd be. Why do you need to be told you've been late so many times that you've accumulated all those points? You don't know you're late or absent? C'mon. Get some responsibility in your life fast. We all have families or things that we need to do, but guess what? We still make it to work on time. Forget suing them, thank them for not firing you already.

Answer 5

Why do you love this job? If you are repeatedly showing up late you give the opposite impression. Get to work early and stay late and show that you want the job - by being late over and over you give the idea that you don't really care and hence your employer doesn't care for you.

Answer 6

Attendance is the number one reason people get fired. It sounds like the company is more patient than most. You are more family oriented than career oriented so get used to the unemploument line.

Answer 7

stop your crying... if you worked for me and couldn't even be RESPONSIBLE enough to get to work daily on time... I'd fire you too. Who wants to employee a person who is lazy and can't even control their own life?

and a company has the right to change their rules at any time. they also can fire you for no reason (read bottom of the application). the fact they documented your issues is 100% law and you have no feet to stand on in a court of law.

my advice... grow up... realize its a JOB, thats why they call it WORK. its not your personal time to do as you please and come in as you please. if you can't do the job, there are hundreds behind you wanting to do it.

Answer 8

You snooze, you lose. Show up to work on time. Period.