Forced resignation

I am in California.

My bosses, a married couple who own the company, have recently become extremely hostile toward me and have begun to harrass me and attack my character. I was approved by my direct supervisor (not one of the owners) to leave the office early yesterday and stay home today because of the extreme stress and anxiety this has caused me (they had me in tears at work). I went to my regular MD doctor today about it because I've had nausea, stomach pains and insomnia since this started Tuesday. She has provided me with a release from work for a few additional days as she has found it is due to the enviroment they have created for me to work in.

My boss is stating however, that if I am not in the office tomorrow they are accepting that as my resignation, even though I clearly said I am not resigning and have a doctors release and reccomendation that I not come in again until next week.

They are not stating they are going to fire me, but accept my absence as a resigation, which is in escense firing me, even though I have been in communication with both the owners and my supervisor concerning this and they are fully aware of my doctor's release.

Is this legal?

Very likely yes, although it's impossible to say conclusively with the information available.

Contrary to what many people appear to believe, a doctor does not have the power to excuse you from work. Just because you have a doctor's note does NOT mean that your employer is required to excuse the absence. Your doctor does not run the company - your bosses do. With a couple of exceptions, which do not appear to apply here, a doctor's note has no force in law.

If your bosses wish to consider this a resignation, they probably can. However, for unemployment purposes, you may be relieved to know that in most cases a forced resignation is considered the same as a firing, so you would still be able to collect.

Tell me, if you had to guess, WHY has their attitude towards you changed? It MIGHT (probably not, but MIGHT, make a difference to the answer.)

I'm not quite sure where the hostility has arisen from. We used to be close on a personal level, but suddenly the wife was very snappy and unfriendly toward me. She recently made a comment outside of work about my husband not deserving me but hers does because "she's not good for him anyways" she said. I was a little wierded out by this and soon went home. I was suppossed to go over to their house the next day and following weekend and didn't, then she started being very antagonistic and saying I had a attitude and was treating everyone poorly and had numerous complaints about me from other employees. Our company is small, about 25 people, I spoke to almost every single other employee, all of which said they didn't complain. After they said they were going to have to accept my resignation if I didn't return today I asked if we could arrange a meeting the the employees who complained so that we could resolve the issues they refused and said those people are to remian annonymous.

I spoke to the husband and explained I did have a doctors release and the doctor has determined that my anxiety and insomnia were due to work related stresses and reccomended I be out for the remiander of the week. He said he wanted me in Monday and I explained I don't think that will be beneficial to anyone, and reminded him they weren't paying me for time missed. He said I could return next week, but I think they may try and fire me upon me return. I'm not sure if that's legal either since he, the owner, agreed I could return next week. I'm already looking for another job, but can I go after them, and if so can I do it if I return to work at another company in the meantime?

You have nothing to go after them for. Unpleasant behavior due to personal animus has nothing to do with a "hostile work environment" as defined in the law. That kind of hostility is prohibited if it's BECAUSE of an employee's race, age, gender, religion, national origin, etc. The owners becoming snappy and rude to you is not illegal.

If you wish to pursue a worker's compensation claim with the company for your anxiety and insomnia you have the legal right to do so, although you should be advised that stress-related WC claims are quite difficult for an employee to medically establish.

Even if they have continuously attacked me, attempted to reprimand me for situations that when I asked for explanation of they couldn't provide and began the hostile treatment after my election not to "be with" the husband?

So basically if they are mad that I removed myself from an uncomfortable proposition, they can attack me at the office until the point that I am in tears and cannot do my job, making up false allegations without having to provide proof of them, then fire me for missing work due to it, even with a doctors release and recommendation, and that's fair and legal and I have no recourse?

What happened to employee rights and standards for employers?

Wait a second. Are you now saying that you are being treated this way because you rejected the owner's sexual advances???

You need to give us the whole story the first time around if you want accurate legal information.

It wasn't HIS advancement but HER proposition almost trying to set him and I up together, and I did mention it in my post yesterday when cbg asked WHY their attitude had changed.

erinv said:

She recently made a comment outside of work about my husband not deserving me but hers does because "she's not good for him anyways" she said. I was a little wierded out by this and soon went home. I was suppossed to go over to their house the next day and following weekend and didn't, then she started being very antagonistic

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She seemed insulted by my reaction of not being at all interested and then she started being very aggresive and negative toward me at work. i tried to ignore it because I was uncomfortable but it just kept getting worse the more I avoided her.

It just doesn't seem fair that she can get mad at me for something completely non work related and fabricate problems at work out of it, fire me for taking a few days off because it upset me to the point I was sick and get away with it scot free.

Im not concerned with her comment, it was outside of work and she obviously realizes it was inappropriate, I'm concerned with me job security after the fact.