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demckay

Guest
What is the name of your state?What is the name of your state? Wisconsin

I was hired by a company to be a manager of an installation in Minneapolis, MN in Feb 2003. The company was based out of Tennessee and headquartered out of California. The job was defined as manager and I was paid a salary. I worked the job for about a year and my supervisor left. I got a new supervisor but this guy made me work doing labor as a technician. I worked along side technicians who were paid hourly and were receiving overtime and double time. We work 6 to 7 days a week most of the time and I was frustrated with it. I told my supervisor that what he was doing was not legal and he made the job so bad trying to get me to quit

The following is a time line of events that took place from May on.

Last week of May I dropped my phone and it broke. He said he would get it replaced. I checked and no one in the company knew anything about it.

The first week of June was my wife's birthday so I applied for a company loan for a personal computer. I gave the form to him because he was returning to home office that week. No one in the company ever received the application.

The first week of June he hired a new technician.

The second week of June he told me to take a week off and use my sick time.

The first week of July he had me turn in my keys to the machines. He stated that I would not need them because we were going to do other work.

The second week of July he had me turn on all my tools. He stated that we were going to start a new campaign and all tools needed sorted. He also had me turn in all mileage and expense reports.

The last week I worked he asked me to bring my laptop so he could install new software for programming. At the end of that week he fired me.

I called the ethics hotline and spoke to the vice-president of the company but nothing has been done. It is now 3 weeks past the date of termination and I have not received my mileage or my expense checks.

What are my options besides get a job since I am trying to do that?

Do I have legal rights to sue?

Also He stated on the day I was terminated that I had overtightened screws, the customer was complaining about my work. In June I received a highly complemented review.

Dave
 
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cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
While I am not denying that you seem to have gotten a raw deal, nothing in your post (including having you work as a labor technician) is out and out illegal (although you MAY have been entitled to OT for that work - not enough detail to say). So, since I don't want to put words in your mouth, answer this for me.

Why, if you had to guess, was he treating you like this?

The answer MAY provide you with some recourse.
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
CBG,
Look at his post from the job he had just before this one, very similar thing happened had management job then "sent back to the tools". That time he resigned then attempted to unresign. We may be getting a very distorited picture of what is happening. Ms. Cupcake
______________________________________________________
11-12-2002, 05:00 PM
demckay
Junior Member

Join Date: Nov 2002
Location: Wisconsin
Posts: 2
I quit but I didn't quit
What is the name of your state? Wisconsin

I have an interesting situation that needs someone to give me some advice.

In 1999 my division a part of Rockwell/Collins was purchased by Siemens. The company is located in Iowa. At the time I was a Field Support Engineer and a level T5. Several months later The company changed their organization and because I did not have a four year degree, I was moved to Engineering Project Specialist I. I was a little put off by the move but accepted this because my job had not changed much. Only thing was that I was no longer upper management.

A few weeks ago we had job performance reviews and I noticed that my job title was now Field Service Technician and my Job description had changed from managment to labor. They had changed my job title and description! I was upset over that and told my boss that my official title was Engineering Project Specialist I. I even went to the company portal and checked my title. My manager went back and changed it with the company office. Now I had been demoted to a technician!

I was quite upset about the change. We were working 12 to 15 hour days and I was tired. I had just received two people to help and the help was telling me what to do. Both guys were calling me names and making work enviroment hostile. I sent my two week notice that night. I was very distressed over the fact that I sent it and called my boss and ask him to ignore it. He said that effective 11/20 I will be terminated no "if's" "and's" or "but's".

I have a number of questions that I would like to have answered.

Did Siemens violate any work ethic laws?

What course of action can I take?

Do I have any rights to file for unemployment?
 
D

demckay

Guest
Last time I was compensated for the work. This time I was not compensated at all. I though Federal law prohibited placing exempt employees into non-exempt classified work. Am I wrong on this?
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Yes, you are wrong about that.

If an exempt level employee spends enough of his time REGULARLY doing non-exempt level work, it MAY destroy his exemption so that he has to be paid on an hourly-plus-overtime basis instead of salaried. But there is nothing illegal about it.

Thanks for the reference, Ms. Cupcake. I don't have time to review it now in respect to the current post, but will do so when I return.
 
D

demckay

Guest
80% of my work required me to do labor tasks all I said to my supervisor was make me hourly. I said that in May.

Dave

Since Feburary ALL my time was labor task and none was managment. I submitted one written report in Feb. My supervisor said nothing would be submitted except through him.

I did say "Make me hourly and I will gladly work the job but I will not work 65 and 70 hour weeks for free anymore". That was due to previous employer and what happened there.
 
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rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
Dave,
I think you are having more troubles that you are telling us or you are not understanding why you were demoted each time. You seem to be repeating a pattern.

I used to work in high tech industry I have seen this happen before, many, many times. As you age it will get worse, so it is very important when you get your next job that your current job skills and abilities match your job description and that you don't accept a job you are not qualified for or you will repeat the same pattern again.

Just beause you had a management job in the past doesn't mean that you have the skills and abilities to be successful in that type of job today and may even pay less in the long run. Times change and require flexibility, if you are not able to adapt or not able to accurately evaluate your work environment, you will have difficulty in any job especially a management job.

If you damage the product or turn out substandard work, that will catch up with you. I am telling you this to help you as you look for your next job, not to be mean. Making excuses may make you feel better but not looking at what caused you to loose your job and addressig those deficiencies will continue the cycle. Good Luck
 
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demckay

Guest
Thank for the advise but I was not demoted or was my work substandard. The point I am trying to make here was that my work WAS exceptional until this guy. He has a reputation in the company of being a control freak anyway.

I am getting unemployment and I am looking for a hourly job BUT,

I want to get paid for work I did do. My exempt status should have never been. He FORCED me to enter 40 hours a week, in fact that may be the real reason when I started entering my REAL time on the time keeping system, but worked me 60 and 70. In the previous job I entered my actual time worked.

Dave
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
demckay said:
Thank for the advise but I was not demoted or was my work substandard. The point I am trying to make here was that my work WAS exceptional until this guy. He has a reputation in the company of being a control freak anyway.

I am getting unemployment and I am looking for a hourly job BUT,

I want to get paid for work I did do. My exempt status should have never been. He FORCED me to enter 40 hours a week, in fact that may be the real reason when I started entering my REAL time on the time keeping system, but worked me 60 and 70. In the previous job I entered my actual time worked.

Dave
He may be a control freak or maybe he was brought in to clean up the shop and make it work more efficiently, possibly because of your inability to manage. In this and your original post almost 2 years ago you admitted to two instances of quality infractions in this last job, over tightening screws and dropping a phone.

You were demoted, by your own admission, again, excuses won't change the facts. It appears they gave you an opportunity as craft and then hired someone to replace you when you could not meet the job expectations and had quality complaints since your review in June. If your skills as a technician were adequate most likely you would have a job, but good technicians are readily available these days. When you hire on as an exempt employee, you understand you may/will be required to work in excess of 40 hours, when you can't or won't, they can replace you for any reason.
 
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demckay

Guest
He was not brought on to clean up shop. He was brought on to replace my previous supervisor who took a new position in the company.

Over tightening a bolt? If I even knew what the heck it was I over tightened would be able to either admit or deny it but I have no clue. I was never told exactly what it was. How can I defend myself for something I do not know what I did?

Dropping a phone is not uncommon when working on equipment. Even he dropped his and more than once.

As for customer complaints, one of the supposed complaints comes from a guy I am in regular contact with. He never complained and he is not going to lie to me either. We have known each other for a long time since my other job was related to this one.

Dave
 
D

demckay

Guest
Here is the nuts and bolts of the issue. I was originally hired as a "manager" I only had one person under me at the time, a temp hire paid hourly. The hourly rate was more than I made as a salaried employee at the time because he was hired through a employment service. I and this person did the same work except I turned in a daily report at the end of shift ever day. I did the report from home after working 10 to 12 hours installing equipment, making inspections and troubleshooting problems. There were some days where I worked a normal shift but far more 10 hour days and then 1 to 2 hours doing email after I got home. The worker I had under me also did exactly the same thing except he did not do the report, was paid hourly and got paid overtime (double time on Sundays). We worked side by side until February of this year when my then supervisor left the position and moved into a new one inside the company.

My new supervisor decided that he would manage all production and now live in a hotel on site so he terminated the temp hire. I was now only a "tech" as he so put it and now did labor task 100%. When ever there was more work than I could possible handle, excess of 70 hour week, he would call in other technicians, from inside the company, to fill in. I never wrote a report and I was still exempt from overtime. I complained that I thought this was actually a violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act (which you are now stating is not true) and was subsequently fired.

Yes I did post previously, 2 years ago, and do realize that I was in error for quitting. Yes I was demoted but that was restructure because a new company bought the division and my education fell under non-exempt but I was still classified exempt. They were working the issue and I lost my cool. If I would have persuade that issue at the time I may have had it resolved as my ex-employer put it. OK. I also learned after I was terminated that my current supervisor never turned in application for a loan or my last expense report. I am really at a loss here as to what rights I have and don't have. :confused:

Maybe this is not wrongful termination I really don't know so please direct me.

Dave
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
The only thing in your post that even comes close to giving you a potential claim is a possible violation of the FLSA. While it is NOT illegal to change your duties to a non-exempt level, from your description you MAY have a claim that your status was actually changed to non-exempt and therefore you would be owed overtime.

Nothing whatsoever in your post suggests that you have a case for wrongful termination or any other legal claim other than the above.
 

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