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Harassment/Wrongful Termination question??

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mrwilson77

Junior Member
:confused: What is the name of your state? California


I know this is a long post, but please be patient. There are many details that I believe are important and need to be included. I really need help/advice…

Until Friday, March 4, I was an Operations Manager for a mortgage lender. On Wednesday, March 2 2005, I was physically threatened by an employee. He got into a confrontation with me that was completely unprompted by me. During the course of the argument (I use that term loosely, as it was actually mostly him yelling and cussing at me), he told me that “I need to get rid of my vagina” and called me many names, such as “****ing *******”. He then threatened to “kick my ass” and made threatening body language suggesting that he wanted to fight me. This whole confrontation was witnessed by three people in my department. Upon being physically threatened, I decided that he had gone too far and that I didn’t feel safe staying there. I then left the building and told my manager that I would not be returning until he was fired.

My manager called me later in the day to tell me that the offender had been fired. I told him that I would like to take the rest of the week off (as vacation time) to let the whole thing blow over and let the offender cool off. I was afraid he would try to retaliate against me because he would think that I was the reason he got fired. The agreement was that I would take Thursday and Friday, March 3-4 off and return to work on Monday, March 7. My boss was fine with this agreement. He told me to take the time off and return to work Monday “ready to work”.

On Thursday morning, March 3, I received another phone call from my boss. He now told me that he felt that I should come in on Friday and that everything would be fine. I told him again that I didn’t feel safe doing that and, per our agreement the day before, he had already given me the time off. He then told me that he “must insist that I come in on Friday”. I told him that I wouldn’t return until Monday. At that point, he told me I was fired.

The person who threatened me is an ex-marine. He has had physical confrontations with at least 3 other employees/managers that have almost escalated to fights, all of which were reported to senior management. In addition to this, I was recently informed by my employees (after I was fired) that he had sexually harassed them by showing them pornographic material on the internet and intimidated them on several occasions. These incidents were also reported to senior management. All of these incidents happened in the previous six months leading up to the confrontation, and most, if not all of them happened before I took over as manager of the team approximately 3 months ago.


I believe that I was wrongfully terminated. There are many different reasons, all of which I believe are illegal or unethical:

- I was already given the vacation time off by my boss for Thursday and Friday, March 3-4. He later changed his mind and insisted that I come in. That’s inappropriate given the circumstances.

- I don’t think that my request was unusual for someone who had been threatened. I wanted to take some time to let the whole thing blow over at work before returning.

- I believe that by taking no action against the offending employee sooner, given his previous violent behavior and harassing ways, that my company created a hostile work environment.

- I would consider myself a model employee at my company. I was the youngest Operations Manager in my office and have received several awards, including Manager of the Month. After this incident, I felt like I had become the enemy. I was a victim here and now my company has completely turned their back on me. I feel that they may have terminated me because of the fact that I had complained of harassment and caused them to fire one of their employees.
 


BelizeBreeze

Senior Member
Regardless of what you PRECEIVE happened, this was not a wrongful termination. Neither was it a wrong termination. You were given time to let things cool down. You were asked to come in a day early. You refused.

The company was more than fair with you and when you did not return the treatment, they let you go.

Simple.

Next time something like this happens, call the police and have the idiot arrested for assault. As for the termination, you have no case.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
As far as whether or not a wrongful termination occurred, unethical reasons don't cut it. Unless you were fired for a reason that was ILLEGAL, you were not wrongfully terminated.

- I was already given the vacation time off by my boss for Thursday and Friday, March 3-4. He later changed his mind and insisted that I come in. That’s inappropriate given the circumstances. It may be inappropriate but it was not illegal.

- I don’t think that my request was unusual for someone who had been threatened. I wanted to take some time to let the whole thing blow over at work before returning. You do not get to decide whether to come in or not. Refusal to come in when requested is firing offense, period.

- I believe that by taking no action against the offending employee sooner, given his previous violent behavior and harassing ways, that my company created a hostile work environment.

You are incorrect. Hostile work environment has a specific legal definition, and this does not meet it. Even if it did, they fired the guy AND THEY WERE NOT REQUIRED TO BY LAW. They had taken all the action the law required them to do, and more.

You do NOT have the right to decide what action they are to take. They could legally have fired you the minute you refused to come in until they fired him. That is NOT your decision to make.

Bottom line, you were not wrongfully terminated.
 

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