fired for violating policy by supervisor who also violated policy

[tonytk13]

What is the name of your state? North Carolina
I was fired in May for violating a policy on vulgar language use. Last November I was diagnosed with depression and was in therapy for that and for anger management. In December I was in an altercation with a coworker that was settled with our immediate supervisor. The coworker then went to the department manager and I was placed on probation, even though the situation was supposed to have been settled. In May, I was accused of violating a policy that I didn't. When I tried to ask my supervisor to look into the situation (as our policy states I had a right to) she refused and continued to state I was wrong. After repeated attempts to get her to look into it, I lost my temper and said "I am tired of being ****ed over". I immediately wrote my department manager about the incident and contacted my employment sponsored therapist for a meeting about it. Five days later I was fired for the incident. My department manager also refused to look into the situation, thus violating the same policy as my supervisor on employee grievances. After being fired, I heard rumors that I threatened both my supervisor and department manager, which is not true. I was denied unemployment and took two months to find another job, during which I was depressed about the rumor. I worked an average of 40-70 hours/week, sometimes as much as 21 days straight covering all three shifts and had the respect of the doctors I worked under (I worked in an emergency department). My former supervisor refuses to speak to me, making it look like the rumor was true. My question is: can I sue to get my job back based on the fact that policy was violated against me before I violated another policy, that I was on probation for six months when most others were 90 days, and that a false rumor was told on me causing me much mental and emotional distress? This is an urgent matter.

 

[Beth3]

An employer being inconsistent in their application of company policy does not provide the basis for a lawsuit unless the reason for the inconsistency is because of the ee's membership in a protected class - for example, if the underlying reason was because you were African American and Caucasian employees would have had their request complied with. Even if that wasn't the case however, not enough is know about your specific situation to offer an opinion as to whether your supervisor's refusal to "look into" the situation was reasonable or not and whether that truly constituted a policy violation.

What is apparent though is that the tone and language in which you addressed your supervisor was insubordination and would indeed get you fired almost anywhere. As far as sueing over the rumors, you'd have to pursue a cause of action for slander which would require you to prove (a) who started the rumors (b) that it was told with malicious intent in order to do you harm and (c) show damages.