wrongful termination

[momof4nanaof1]

What is the name of your state? Texas

Is this a case of wrongful termination?

At-will employer. Hired 120 days ago and received no formal training. Told it was better to learn in the trenches. 60 days after hire was promised Branch Manager position as soon as I was ready.

Working 65 - 70 hours a week on salary. Hourly employees underneath me are working 48-60. 3 employees have had to see doctor for stress. Luckily I have maintained my stress.

Repeatedly asked boss to hire more employees to take off the pressure on other employees. Early requests were denied.

Trying to avoid losing business and went over the bosses head to ask for more help. I believe my boss feels threatened. Now he's retaliating and given me 30 days to fix the business. In 25 days, I'll get several more employees and this will alleviate much of the problem, but will probably be too late to show significant improvement.

My subordinates support me and are doing everything they can to make sure the job gets done so they won't get rid of me. Some have even said they want me to remember them when I get another job.

I'm the 3rd manager in this position. Others were demoted or fired for "not getting the job done".

Company just hired another employee and he is getting the formal training he needs.

I don't feel I got the support I needed up front, have made significant progress with the staff I have, put not only time, but blood, sweat, and tears into this job to possibly be let go.

If they hire another manager, he'll look like the hero for all my hard work to get to this point.

Also, when hired, they promised to move my family and pay all relocation costs. Have tried numerous times to get this in writing and boss has always said he'd do it. Now that he's given me 30 days, is taking back his offer. Can he do that? Chose not to move immediately due to kids in school.

Should I hold on for dear life or speak to the HR director now?

 

[JETX]

"Should I hold on for dear life or speak to the HR director now?"
*** You can certainly speak to anyone you feel is appropriate. And though it does sounds like poor management, the description you gave does not show anything illegal.

 

[cbg]

No, I'm sorry but this is not even remotely close to a wrongful termination.

Texas, like every other state in the US except Montana (and even including Montana in some circumstances) is an at-will state. Under the at-will doctrine, you can quit at any time and for any reason whatsoever, and you can be fired at any time for any reason that does not violate the law.

A wrongful termination does not mean one that is unfair, unjust, unexpected, based on incorrect or inaccurate information, or even, in the large majority of situations, one that is in violation of company policy. In order to qualify as a wrongful termination, it has to have been ILLEGAL to terminate you for the reason that they did.

There are two types of wrongful terminations; violations of Title VII and violations of public policy. A Title VII violation means one that qualifies as illegal discrimination; race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, pregnancy, because you are over 40, or because of your membership in any other group protected by state law. (Texas follows Federal guidelines and does not add any additional groups to the protected list above.) Nothing in your post indicates that your race, gender, national origin etc. was in any way a part of the decision to terminate you. So no wrongful term under Title VII.

A public policy violation is a bit more difficult to define, but in general it means that you were terminated BECAUSE you utilized or applied for a benefit or right that is protected under the law. Examples (not a complete list) of public policy violations would include firing you because you filed a workers comp claim; applied for FMLA, reported illegal or unsafe activity to the appropriate outside agency (this does NOT include internal complaints); attended a union organizational meeting, and so on. Nothing in your post indicates that anything of this type was involved in the decision to term you, either.

Firing you because you did not perform to their satisfaction, EVEN IF you did not get proper support or training and EVEN IF the requirements were unreasonably high, is not a wrongful termination UNLESS you can show that this reason is a pretext and the REAL reason for your termination is one of the items above. At least initially, the burden of proof would be on you to show this to be the case.

As to whether he can back out of the relocation agreement, that depends entirely upon the terms of the agreement and whether or not they were in writing. You would need to show any documentation you may have on the agreement, to a local attorney to get a definite answer.