SeekingJustic
Junior Member
I'm in California.
On June 27th my direct supervisor of 4 months, whom I had seen less than three times since she started, came to the property I have been managing for one of the largest property management companies in the US, since December 2010. She came with the Human Resource liaison. My supervisor had a scheduled site visit with me that day, however, I had not been expecting HR to come.
The HR rep said she came because they were "officially lowering my wage from a salary of $44,000 a year to an hourly wage of $17 per hour." I had received a promotion in 2015 to Senior Property Manager when asked to manage over multiple sites. I was promoted because when the manager of another property had became ill with lung cancer, in May of 2014, I was asked to cover for her, I knew the reports, the residents, and the property well. When it was clear that she was not going to return in January of 2015, I was promoted to be the Senior Property Manager over both properties, while training a new Leasing Agent. That Leasing Agent was terminated in December of 2015, after the probation period, and the owners of the property I had taken on decided they wanted a Property Manager sitting behind the desk and not a Leasing Agent. A Property Manager was hired 2/2016 for $15 an hour and the previous Leasing Agent was making $10. I was still responsible for training, watching over the Property Manager, and completing all of the reports.
My supervisor said they were demoting me back to Property Manager, on June 27th, because the other site could no longer afford me, and they needed to cut costs. She also said that she wanted me to continue to do everything that I had been doing for that property which I was no longer going to be paid from. I rebutted and said that the other property I manage, was $45,000 ahead of budget, and could afford my salary. The owner of my original property had said in, March of 2016, that they would make sure I got a good raise if I could beat my budget. Then my supervisor stated that other Property Managers didn't make as much as I did and the pay had to be even across the portfolio. I argued that I had over 8 years of experience, had been with the company over 5 years, obtained a perfect score on my TCAC audit in 2013, multiple perfect or near perfect scores on other audits, multiple awards, and was certified as a Specialist in Housing Credit Management. I was backed into a corner and ended up agreeing to the lower wage because otherwise, I would have had to move my family of 5 out, and our whole lives would have been disrupted. They told me the change would take place that pay period, even though we were already most of the way through the pay period.
That night, I complained on Facebook that I was feeling stressed due to my salary dropping $3.19 an hour and my cost of insurance going up $130 a pay check. This change would mean that my take home pay would be less than it was 5.5 years ago. I got multiple responses and I replied stating that I would be looking for a new job.
The next day, I received a call from my supervisor at 5:30pm asking me for my keys and stating that she was conducting a surprise audit. I obliged and asked what the purpose of the audit was and she said "Oh it's nothing, just a little audit." She came in with a woman I had never seen before. I printed out all of the forms she requested including the Rent Roll and Aging Receivables Report, which shows how much residents owe. On the AR report, I explained twice how I needed to submit a Yardi Ticket to marry up a $70 charge with a $90 credit, for the new residents in apartment 113. A few minutes later, she accused me of not taking an application fee for apartment 113 because it was showing a $70 balance, and I explained to her again that I needed to submit a Yardi ticket to marry up the charge and the credit. She also kept calling me "Kate" (the name of another manager who was terminated the same day I was). The next day, Wednesday, June 29th, I came into the office and my supervisor and the other woman showed back up around 9:30 am. My supervisor pointed out that a resident who moved in 2011 only had a $500 security deposit, listed on the Rent Roll, and her lease showed that her security deposit was $600. I told her that because we use a check scanner for all of our deposits, it was possible for another money order to be scanned in behind another money order in front of it. Thankfully, there was a copy of the money order in the file, and I suggested that we have our accounting department do a search on the money order to see if it was ever cashed, and if it wasn't, MoneyGram should be able to re-issue it. Yardi went down for the month end close (so rents could be charged) and I couldn't pull up that resident's ledger. My supervisor and the other woman acted like they thought I took the money order and the other woman bragged about how she had put a manager away in jail for stealing money when she worked for anpother management company. I insisted that there had to be some kind of mistake and that as soon as Yardi was back up, I could pull the ledger and see what happened. I would never take money and have never taken money. My supervisor and the other woman went to lunch and Yardi was back up and accessible by the time they came back, and I was able to print out the resident's ledger, which showed a $100 money order deposited to the ledger, at move in. I believe the issue had been that I mistakenly charged the resident $500 for the security deposit and not $600, so, the resident then underpaid rent to make up for the mistaken credit. I showed the ledger to my supervisor and she said she would add it to her investigation.
My supervisor also said I was suspended until they got to the bottom of everything and heard back about the trace on the money order. I was sent home and called back into the office the next day, to receive my final paycheck (not long enough for them to trace the money order). My supervisor was not there to give me my final paycheck, the other woman gave me my final paycheck, and was visually shaking when she gave it to me. She also gave another manager, Kate, her last paycheck at the same time. When I asked her why I was being terminated she responded that my position is an "at will" position and I had 7 days to move out of my apartment. I contacted my HR rep and asked her why I was terminated and she stated that I was being "discharged" and sent me an e-mail with a company form that said "Discharged" and told me I had 10 days to move out and would be charged if I did not leave the apartment presentable.
I worked for that company since December of 2010 and have never been dishonest. I don't feel that mischarging someone a security deposit in 2011 was reason enough to terminate me or deny my unemployment. I believe that the issue was fixable and I could have easily resolved it, if I had been given the chance. I feel like I have been viciously attacked and mistreated by my pervious supervisor, because of my post about my wage, on Face book. Also, Kate had turned our supervisor over to HR for misconduct twice. My Face book account was not public, however, I had a former supervisor as a friend and this supervisor also knew my supervisor whom terminated me.
Also, Kate, the other manager who was terminated, is my cousin. She stated that while she was clearing out her office, she witnessed several large bags of shredded documents in her office closet. I also witnessed large amounts of shredded paperwork in my old office. After I moved, residents came to me telling me that they were being forced to get rid of their companion animals because "they didn't have any documents on file."
I had interior residential apartment inspections scheduled for July 7th and my supervisor and another employee conducted the inspections. Residents contacted me upset because my supervisor and the other employee were calling their furniture ratty, forcing them to throw away furniture, clothes, and personal items. Residents from the other property, where Kate was terminated, were told that they had to get rid of everything on their patios except for one plant and approved patio furniture only. My residents were told they had to get rid of all but 4 plants. The way they treated the residents after our dismissal was cruel and several residents are seeking legal aid or moving.
Furthermore, a week before my dismissal I was sent an e-mail that wasn't meant for me, and in this e-mail, there was a copy of a bank statement, for my property, with Wells Fargo. All of the bank accounts I knew about were with California Bank & Trust and I asked about it but I was told that the e-mail wasn't meant for me. On 8/20/16 I received a certified letter in the mail from my HR rep stating that "As I well know", they recently discovered that I stole $10,000 in rent, security deposits, late fees, and application fees, from the property I managed. an investigation is still going on, and if I don't contact their General Council rep, to pay it back I will face criminal charges, attorney fees, ect. I am completely innocent of taking money.
Also, my supervisor went on a 2 - 3 week vacation after my termination, came back to work, and resigned a week later.
I have been trying to get a local attorney all week, however, because I haven't been formally charged, I am having a hard time getting one. The company I worked for still owes me money for expenses and unpaid holiday pay. They also over charged me my insurance on my last paycheck. None of the jobs I have applied to have called me for interviews and my residents and co-workers are coming to me stating that they heard I stole money (this was before I got the letter). My family and I had to move to my parents house and my three children are sharing a room, while my husband and I sleep in a tent.
How should I proceed?
On June 27th my direct supervisor of 4 months, whom I had seen less than three times since she started, came to the property I have been managing for one of the largest property management companies in the US, since December 2010. She came with the Human Resource liaison. My supervisor had a scheduled site visit with me that day, however, I had not been expecting HR to come.
The HR rep said she came because they were "officially lowering my wage from a salary of $44,000 a year to an hourly wage of $17 per hour." I had received a promotion in 2015 to Senior Property Manager when asked to manage over multiple sites. I was promoted because when the manager of another property had became ill with lung cancer, in May of 2014, I was asked to cover for her, I knew the reports, the residents, and the property well. When it was clear that she was not going to return in January of 2015, I was promoted to be the Senior Property Manager over both properties, while training a new Leasing Agent. That Leasing Agent was terminated in December of 2015, after the probation period, and the owners of the property I had taken on decided they wanted a Property Manager sitting behind the desk and not a Leasing Agent. A Property Manager was hired 2/2016 for $15 an hour and the previous Leasing Agent was making $10. I was still responsible for training, watching over the Property Manager, and completing all of the reports.
My supervisor said they were demoting me back to Property Manager, on June 27th, because the other site could no longer afford me, and they needed to cut costs. She also said that she wanted me to continue to do everything that I had been doing for that property which I was no longer going to be paid from. I rebutted and said that the other property I manage, was $45,000 ahead of budget, and could afford my salary. The owner of my original property had said in, March of 2016, that they would make sure I got a good raise if I could beat my budget. Then my supervisor stated that other Property Managers didn't make as much as I did and the pay had to be even across the portfolio. I argued that I had over 8 years of experience, had been with the company over 5 years, obtained a perfect score on my TCAC audit in 2013, multiple perfect or near perfect scores on other audits, multiple awards, and was certified as a Specialist in Housing Credit Management. I was backed into a corner and ended up agreeing to the lower wage because otherwise, I would have had to move my family of 5 out, and our whole lives would have been disrupted. They told me the change would take place that pay period, even though we were already most of the way through the pay period.
That night, I complained on Facebook that I was feeling stressed due to my salary dropping $3.19 an hour and my cost of insurance going up $130 a pay check. This change would mean that my take home pay would be less than it was 5.5 years ago. I got multiple responses and I replied stating that I would be looking for a new job.
The next day, I received a call from my supervisor at 5:30pm asking me for my keys and stating that she was conducting a surprise audit. I obliged and asked what the purpose of the audit was and she said "Oh it's nothing, just a little audit." She came in with a woman I had never seen before. I printed out all of the forms she requested including the Rent Roll and Aging Receivables Report, which shows how much residents owe. On the AR report, I explained twice how I needed to submit a Yardi Ticket to marry up a $70 charge with a $90 credit, for the new residents in apartment 113. A few minutes later, she accused me of not taking an application fee for apartment 113 because it was showing a $70 balance, and I explained to her again that I needed to submit a Yardi ticket to marry up the charge and the credit. She also kept calling me "Kate" (the name of another manager who was terminated the same day I was). The next day, Wednesday, June 29th, I came into the office and my supervisor and the other woman showed back up around 9:30 am. My supervisor pointed out that a resident who moved in 2011 only had a $500 security deposit, listed on the Rent Roll, and her lease showed that her security deposit was $600. I told her that because we use a check scanner for all of our deposits, it was possible for another money order to be scanned in behind another money order in front of it. Thankfully, there was a copy of the money order in the file, and I suggested that we have our accounting department do a search on the money order to see if it was ever cashed, and if it wasn't, MoneyGram should be able to re-issue it. Yardi went down for the month end close (so rents could be charged) and I couldn't pull up that resident's ledger. My supervisor and the other woman acted like they thought I took the money order and the other woman bragged about how she had put a manager away in jail for stealing money when she worked for anpother management company. I insisted that there had to be some kind of mistake and that as soon as Yardi was back up, I could pull the ledger and see what happened. I would never take money and have never taken money. My supervisor and the other woman went to lunch and Yardi was back up and accessible by the time they came back, and I was able to print out the resident's ledger, which showed a $100 money order deposited to the ledger, at move in. I believe the issue had been that I mistakenly charged the resident $500 for the security deposit and not $600, so, the resident then underpaid rent to make up for the mistaken credit. I showed the ledger to my supervisor and she said she would add it to her investigation.
My supervisor also said I was suspended until they got to the bottom of everything and heard back about the trace on the money order. I was sent home and called back into the office the next day, to receive my final paycheck (not long enough for them to trace the money order). My supervisor was not there to give me my final paycheck, the other woman gave me my final paycheck, and was visually shaking when she gave it to me. She also gave another manager, Kate, her last paycheck at the same time. When I asked her why I was being terminated she responded that my position is an "at will" position and I had 7 days to move out of my apartment. I contacted my HR rep and asked her why I was terminated and she stated that I was being "discharged" and sent me an e-mail with a company form that said "Discharged" and told me I had 10 days to move out and would be charged if I did not leave the apartment presentable.
I worked for that company since December of 2010 and have never been dishonest. I don't feel that mischarging someone a security deposit in 2011 was reason enough to terminate me or deny my unemployment. I believe that the issue was fixable and I could have easily resolved it, if I had been given the chance. I feel like I have been viciously attacked and mistreated by my pervious supervisor, because of my post about my wage, on Face book. Also, Kate had turned our supervisor over to HR for misconduct twice. My Face book account was not public, however, I had a former supervisor as a friend and this supervisor also knew my supervisor whom terminated me.
Also, Kate, the other manager who was terminated, is my cousin. She stated that while she was clearing out her office, she witnessed several large bags of shredded documents in her office closet. I also witnessed large amounts of shredded paperwork in my old office. After I moved, residents came to me telling me that they were being forced to get rid of their companion animals because "they didn't have any documents on file."
I had interior residential apartment inspections scheduled for July 7th and my supervisor and another employee conducted the inspections. Residents contacted me upset because my supervisor and the other employee were calling their furniture ratty, forcing them to throw away furniture, clothes, and personal items. Residents from the other property, where Kate was terminated, were told that they had to get rid of everything on their patios except for one plant and approved patio furniture only. My residents were told they had to get rid of all but 4 plants. The way they treated the residents after our dismissal was cruel and several residents are seeking legal aid or moving.
Furthermore, a week before my dismissal I was sent an e-mail that wasn't meant for me, and in this e-mail, there was a copy of a bank statement, for my property, with Wells Fargo. All of the bank accounts I knew about were with California Bank & Trust and I asked about it but I was told that the e-mail wasn't meant for me. On 8/20/16 I received a certified letter in the mail from my HR rep stating that "As I well know", they recently discovered that I stole $10,000 in rent, security deposits, late fees, and application fees, from the property I managed. an investigation is still going on, and if I don't contact their General Council rep, to pay it back I will face criminal charges, attorney fees, ect. I am completely innocent of taking money.
Also, my supervisor went on a 2 - 3 week vacation after my termination, came back to work, and resigned a week later.
I have been trying to get a local attorney all week, however, because I haven't been formally charged, I am having a hard time getting one. The company I worked for still owes me money for expenses and unpaid holiday pay. They also over charged me my insurance on my last paycheck. None of the jobs I have applied to have called me for interviews and my residents and co-workers are coming to me stating that they heard I stole money (this was before I got the letter). My family and I had to move to my parents house and my three children are sharing a room, while my husband and I sleep in a tent.
How should I proceed?