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Termination / descrimination based on status as a parent / sick time

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Cidarony

Junior Member
Texas
So I know that Texas is an at will employment state and I probably know the answer but I'd like to get input from someone in the know. I work for a very large, global company (about 40,000 employees in the Austin, Texas area alone) and I have been at my job for 2 years. I found out today from a co-worker that I am being fired in two days. I have no idea why I'm being fired and nothing has been documented indicating that I have done anything wrong to lead up to this termination. I am a single mother with one toddler son. Last month I had to miss 5 days of work because he was ill. I have doctors notes and notes from his daycare to back this up. I'm concerned that the real reason I'm being fired is that I took this time off work. My new boss has been very difficult and a real jerk, making my work life almost impossible since she took over the role as my supervisor. Since she started I have felt like her primary goal was to fire me or make me so miserable that I'd eventually quit. I mentioned this to her and her boss (in writing) recently. My plan is to pre-empt my firing by speaking to our HR generalist tomorrow and explaining to her that I'm concerned about the way my boss has acted towards me recently and that I'm leary that my job may be in jeopardy because of my recent absences. Do I have a leg to stand on here? What I mean is if I'm certain that my boss is firing me because of the time I had to take off to be with my ill child, can I use that? Or is this just a bad business practice but not illegal? Any help you could provide would be greatly appreciated.
 


pattytx

Senior Member
As you describe it, this is not discrimination. Even if it were, it is not for an illegal reason, so you would have no legal recourse.

Employees must meet the attendance requirements of the company regardless of parental status. They are not required to give parents any more time off than nonparents.

BTW, you heard from another employee you were going to be fired? Does this other employee have any reason to know this? However, you have nothing to lose by speaking with HR as you mentioned; I just would not mention this "rumor".

Good luck.
 

Cidarony

Junior Member
Thanks!

Thanks for your response. I actually heard this "third hand" from a team member who heard it from another team member who is good friends with my boss (there are 4 of us on the team altogether, including my boss). The person who told me is VERY trustworthy and I have no doubt that my boss told the other person that I was going to be fired, she's discussed my performance with these two peers once before (I thought the issue was addressed and resolved, apparently not). My plan is to play dumb with HR and pretend I haven't heard a thing, I don't want the co-worker that told me to suffer too. Thanks again for your advise, I've never been fired before so this is a huge shock/issue for me and I'm not sure what I can do, a friend in HR gave me some suggestions so I figured I'd run them through here and see what I get.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
One question for you, that MIGHT give you some recourse; what was the nature of your son's illness and did your employer know the reason?
 

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