What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Oklahoma an "at will" state
I was fired yesterday (1-19-2011). It started with an incident that did not pertain to me but a friend of mine that I witnessed. She was repeating what someone else said and it had the "n" word in it. She turned around and saw her other friend who happened to be black. She apologized profusely and immediately knew she had hurt her friend. Her friend said that she knew there was no harm ment and put her arm around her and said she forgave her. Everything seemed to be ok at that point. I was a witness to this and I also apologized to her for my friend. I was very embarassed even though I did not say it. Later that day my friend found out that there was a formal complaint lodged against her and she was put on probation for a year. Once this happened, both my friend and I stopped talking to her other friend. In my opinion, when I apologized to her for what my friend said, she told me that it was ok and that she forgave her, so I was upset that she lied. Also, It spoke loudly of her character. We had decided that it would be best to just stay away. Later, another co worker had tried to push us into making more comments to her. It was then that we realized that the co worker, who is hispanic, encouraged the woman to file the complaint. Again, we stayed away from both of them. We did not look in their direction and we said nothing further to either of them. Part of what was told to my friend by our supervisor was to not speak to them, so we didn't. The day before yesterday, the same black woman went to our lead clerk and stated in a very loud voice "I ain't afraid of these mother f@#*#s, I will kick all their asses." My friend and I carpool together and when we were in the car on our way home we questioned what that was about. My friend did say that she saw the hispanic woman at the black womans station just prior to that. The following day, after waiting to see if the lead clerk told our supervisor what had happened the evening before, The black woman approached my friends desk and accused her of talking about her and causing trouble. At that point, we really became worried and realized that our lead clerk never mentioned the incident of the previous evening. In my opinion, that was workplace violence and I wrote a statement as to what she had said and what she had called us and gave the original to my supervisor and kept a copy. Later that day, I was called to HR. I thought it would be about the statement I wrote. I was informed that I was being terminated because I was instigating the situation and I had made "off color" comment about mexicans. This was a total suprize to me and asked what comments I was supposed to have said. I was told that they would not tell me. I asked if this pertained to the statement I wrote about the previous evening and the HR lady had no idea of what had happened. My supervisor never turned the statement into HR. When I mentioned what it said, they pushed me out the door. I was denied the knowledge of what was said about me, I was labeled a racist, and the workplace violence was allowed to happen.
Do I have any rights with this?
I was fired yesterday (1-19-2011). It started with an incident that did not pertain to me but a friend of mine that I witnessed. She was repeating what someone else said and it had the "n" word in it. She turned around and saw her other friend who happened to be black. She apologized profusely and immediately knew she had hurt her friend. Her friend said that she knew there was no harm ment and put her arm around her and said she forgave her. Everything seemed to be ok at that point. I was a witness to this and I also apologized to her for my friend. I was very embarassed even though I did not say it. Later that day my friend found out that there was a formal complaint lodged against her and she was put on probation for a year. Once this happened, both my friend and I stopped talking to her other friend. In my opinion, when I apologized to her for what my friend said, she told me that it was ok and that she forgave her, so I was upset that she lied. Also, It spoke loudly of her character. We had decided that it would be best to just stay away. Later, another co worker had tried to push us into making more comments to her. It was then that we realized that the co worker, who is hispanic, encouraged the woman to file the complaint. Again, we stayed away from both of them. We did not look in their direction and we said nothing further to either of them. Part of what was told to my friend by our supervisor was to not speak to them, so we didn't. The day before yesterday, the same black woman went to our lead clerk and stated in a very loud voice "I ain't afraid of these mother f@#*#s, I will kick all their asses." My friend and I carpool together and when we were in the car on our way home we questioned what that was about. My friend did say that she saw the hispanic woman at the black womans station just prior to that. The following day, after waiting to see if the lead clerk told our supervisor what had happened the evening before, The black woman approached my friends desk and accused her of talking about her and causing trouble. At that point, we really became worried and realized that our lead clerk never mentioned the incident of the previous evening. In my opinion, that was workplace violence and I wrote a statement as to what she had said and what she had called us and gave the original to my supervisor and kept a copy. Later that day, I was called to HR. I thought it would be about the statement I wrote. I was informed that I was being terminated because I was instigating the situation and I had made "off color" comment about mexicans. This was a total suprize to me and asked what comments I was supposed to have said. I was told that they would not tell me. I asked if this pertained to the statement I wrote about the previous evening and the HR lady had no idea of what had happened. My supervisor never turned the statement into HR. When I mentioned what it said, they pushed me out the door. I was denied the knowledge of what was said about me, I was labeled a racist, and the workplace violence was allowed to happen.
Do I have any rights with this?