firing without a good reason

[confused]

I was hired Sept. 25 to a customer service job even though I knew nothing about this particular job. The owner/man who hired me was very charming and seemed to be a very nice man who wanted to help a divorced mother of 2 and I was very grateful. He was starting me at a very good salary.The first day there he personally sat me down to begin my training and at noon he took me to a nice place to eat,started a conversation about our personal lives, told me that he and his wife never had much to do with each other any more and asked me about my divorce and "don't you get lonely?". When I replied that I don't really get lonely because I have a very nice boyfriend, I noticed his demeaner changed. When we got back he worked with me a little while till he got a couple of phone calls and then asked his receptionist to take over the responsibility of teaching me the job for the rest of the day. To make a long story short, the receptionist was responsible for my traing from then on. She was far too busy to do an effective job and 8 weeks later he fired me with a letter that he left with his manager after he went out of town on a business trip.The note said he was sorry, but the job was a bad fit and there was not enough time for anyone to train me so I was fired. This I feel was terribly unfair. Is there anything I can do or should I just chalk it up?

 

[buddy2bear]

You don't have enough basis for a quid pro quo sexual harassment complaint. You can't just use a change in demeanor for this. Now if he had said, "either give it up or lose your job," that would be different.

 

[confused]

reply to buddy2bear

I realize that there is no real harrassement but what I really wanted to know was, can he legally fire me? He told me I would be trained and then decided not to do it. This is beside the point, but he was paying me too much and wanted rid of me. Isn't it illegal to hire someone and then simply fire them because you have changed your mind?

 

[Always searching]

Most businesses these days have a 90 trial period. This alleviates them from any lawsuits and they can see if there is a good "match". This guy was hoping to score and you shot him down. When he found out that even though you were single, you weren't stupid, he had no place to go with it except to let you fall because of the lack of training. More than likely, his training probably just consisted of the lower half of his body, so you probably wouldn't have gotten trained anyway. You were probably not the first, and not the last. If you felt he was charming, he will be charming to others. You more than likely signed a 90 day trial period clause in your new hire paperwork. Best advice to you is pretend you never worked there (that includes references too) and look for another job. His reference for you based on the caliber of person we perceive from your post will be un-ethical too. That is why I say forget you ever walked in that door.

 

[buddy2bear]

Always Searching basically is correct. Just because you were hired doesn't mean you can't be fired. Unless you signed an employment agreement or are a member of a union, you can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. I know that this probably hurt your self-esteem, but it happens. Just be glad you got out of there before you invested your emotions and time. And from the rest of the women in the workforce -- you go girl! Thanks for not giving in.