North Carolina
My wife works with a large medical practice that offers annual 'discretionary' bonuses. Long story short, my wife seems to be at the short end of the stick thanks to a f-up by middle and upper management and the obscurity of their employee manual. Here's the most relevant facts:
A) My wife's annual discretionary bonus represents about 30% of her annual base salary, so it's income we rely on to get us through the year.
B) The 'discretionary' bonus actually comes with a short list of metrics upon which the bonus is based. My wife met (with flying colors) every metric listed.
C) She was misinformed by middle management as to her performance numbers when she signed off on her 'oral warning' which she was given and signed off on. The metric in question was providing patient information within a specific time period. During her oral warning, mid-mgmt told her she was at 90-91% and they require 95%. Later, it was shown the actual figure was 79%. There was also no clarification that she could lose her full bonus if her numbers did not improve.
D) My wife failed to meet the metric during the time all this was going on due to a death in the family. Supposedly, mid-mgmt while they were trying to figure out if this would cost her her actual full annual bonus or a smaller separate bonus that accommodations had been made and the exact same transgressions forgiven for another employee.
E) A follow up meeting was given for her written warning, she was informed that her figures would continue to be monitored and she was on probation. The probation was to last 3 months, during which she was 100% compliant. At the 6 week mark, she was informed that her 'discretionary' bonus would be withheld anyways - despite it only being halfway through the 'probationary' period, meeting 100% of the prescribed criteria (including the one they 'justified' taking away her bonus), and her being the highest ranked patient care provider at her level for the entire organization (which has more than 100 employees).
Long story short...she's being railroaded and this ongoing bureaucratic nightmare has left us in a highly stressed financial limbo for nearly 5 months now. Mid/Upper mgmt royally screwed up, and she's paying for it. They basically were judge, jury, and executioner all during her 'oral' warning. Middle management is the only one that has access to her performance metrics (she can't access them w/o mgmt). They've refused (by ignoring multiple requests) to provide her 'signed' copies of the 'oral' warning which supposedly describes the potential penalties/punishments. She wasn't allowed to defend herself against the charges infront of the companies 'governing council' which supposedly voted to keep the punishment in place and not receive her bonus (how they were presented the info to vote on is also seriously in question).
My wife very much loves her job, but there's no way she can stay with the company that takes away 30% of what you make in a year for a menial transgression, not listed as 1 of the 3 metrics used to receive the 'discretionary' bonus, and the communication w/ mid/upper mgmt has been absolutely horrible. The punishment is like giving the electric chair to someone who got a speeding ticket...and the 'speeding' could even be called into question.
At this point, she's exhausted all her appeals. She's appealed to the company HR person who interceded on her behalf w/ regional mgmt who refused to change their decision (or as she put it, the governing councils decision - I still think the manager either just made the decision or did some serious string pulling in the presentation during the GC's 'vote'), and elevated it to the regional mgr's boss, who also said they couldn't overturn the decision.
My biggest question about all this is if they list 3 specific criteria for a 'discretionary' bonus in their employee manual, and the employee meets those 3 criteria w/ flying colors - how is it considered a 'discretionary' bonus at that point? I've read about some case precedents where many judges have sided w/ plaintiffs over 'discretionary' bonuses - especially when such a large portion of their annual salary is tied up in a bonus. My wife doesn't deserve this. She's a model employee, is late every night coming home because she deeply cares about the quality of care she provides patients, and the highest rated employee at her level in the organization in patient satisfaction. She's been with the company 3 years and didn't have a single transgression in her file before the oral argument in this case. It's like the regional manager has a personal vendetta against her for some reason. Why...we have no idea - especially since they've made concessions for the exact same thing in the past. It really is infuriating. I would love to sue the company into oblivion over this mess, and very much love to go after the regional manager if it is revealed she's the one behind all of this. Any advice or recommendations on attorneys that specialize in business law in the Charlotte, NC area would be appreciated.
My wife works with a large medical practice that offers annual 'discretionary' bonuses. Long story short, my wife seems to be at the short end of the stick thanks to a f-up by middle and upper management and the obscurity of their employee manual. Here's the most relevant facts:
A) My wife's annual discretionary bonus represents about 30% of her annual base salary, so it's income we rely on to get us through the year.
B) The 'discretionary' bonus actually comes with a short list of metrics upon which the bonus is based. My wife met (with flying colors) every metric listed.
C) She was misinformed by middle management as to her performance numbers when she signed off on her 'oral warning' which she was given and signed off on. The metric in question was providing patient information within a specific time period. During her oral warning, mid-mgmt told her she was at 90-91% and they require 95%. Later, it was shown the actual figure was 79%. There was also no clarification that she could lose her full bonus if her numbers did not improve.
D) My wife failed to meet the metric during the time all this was going on due to a death in the family. Supposedly, mid-mgmt while they were trying to figure out if this would cost her her actual full annual bonus or a smaller separate bonus that accommodations had been made and the exact same transgressions forgiven for another employee.
E) A follow up meeting was given for her written warning, she was informed that her figures would continue to be monitored and she was on probation. The probation was to last 3 months, during which she was 100% compliant. At the 6 week mark, she was informed that her 'discretionary' bonus would be withheld anyways - despite it only being halfway through the 'probationary' period, meeting 100% of the prescribed criteria (including the one they 'justified' taking away her bonus), and her being the highest ranked patient care provider at her level for the entire organization (which has more than 100 employees).
Long story short...she's being railroaded and this ongoing bureaucratic nightmare has left us in a highly stressed financial limbo for nearly 5 months now. Mid/Upper mgmt royally screwed up, and she's paying for it. They basically were judge, jury, and executioner all during her 'oral' warning. Middle management is the only one that has access to her performance metrics (she can't access them w/o mgmt). They've refused (by ignoring multiple requests) to provide her 'signed' copies of the 'oral' warning which supposedly describes the potential penalties/punishments. She wasn't allowed to defend herself against the charges infront of the companies 'governing council' which supposedly voted to keep the punishment in place and not receive her bonus (how they were presented the info to vote on is also seriously in question).
My wife very much loves her job, but there's no way she can stay with the company that takes away 30% of what you make in a year for a menial transgression, not listed as 1 of the 3 metrics used to receive the 'discretionary' bonus, and the communication w/ mid/upper mgmt has been absolutely horrible. The punishment is like giving the electric chair to someone who got a speeding ticket...and the 'speeding' could even be called into question.
At this point, she's exhausted all her appeals. She's appealed to the company HR person who interceded on her behalf w/ regional mgmt who refused to change their decision (or as she put it, the governing councils decision - I still think the manager either just made the decision or did some serious string pulling in the presentation during the GC's 'vote'), and elevated it to the regional mgr's boss, who also said they couldn't overturn the decision.
My biggest question about all this is if they list 3 specific criteria for a 'discretionary' bonus in their employee manual, and the employee meets those 3 criteria w/ flying colors - how is it considered a 'discretionary' bonus at that point? I've read about some case precedents where many judges have sided w/ plaintiffs over 'discretionary' bonuses - especially when such a large portion of their annual salary is tied up in a bonus. My wife doesn't deserve this. She's a model employee, is late every night coming home because she deeply cares about the quality of care she provides patients, and the highest rated employee at her level in the organization in patient satisfaction. She's been with the company 3 years and didn't have a single transgression in her file before the oral argument in this case. It's like the regional manager has a personal vendetta against her for some reason. Why...we have no idea - especially since they've made concessions for the exact same thing in the past. It really is infuriating. I would love to sue the company into oblivion over this mess, and very much love to go after the regional manager if it is revealed she's the one behind all of this. Any advice or recommendations on attorneys that specialize in business law in the Charlotte, NC area would be appreciated.
