~What do you think?~

[Hiro Lionheart]

Skip to the cake if you don't care about the intro!

Long time Lurker, first time Poster on BG forums. Old player, been around since US launch on Ramuh (although originally starting on Levaithan for roughly 2 weeks). Lost my original character over a year ago (Name Hiroleonheart) due to a key logger, recently made a new character and am feeling the FFXI love all over again.

Just a short history, not really sure if anyone cares =P Anyhow, here's what the topic is about:



Question for you all~

I've worked at a well-known corporate retail chain for 4 years as a consistently higher tier associate.

-I started as a Full-time associate with them until receiving multiple promotions, ending as a successful Store Manager.
-I've been given multiple awards for my achievements and excellence while employed with them.
-Never had a documented issue concerning ethics, store operations, or any type of offense that could be considered harmful to the business.
-Hired and trained multiple successful full-time, part-time, assistant manager, and currently promoted Store Managers into the company.
-Ran the biggest sales percentage gain from Quarter 2 of this year in our area, and number 5 in the entire company.
-Consistently achieved success on the sales floor as well as management aspect of the company.
-Worked 50+ hours a week as required by the company, as well as above and beyond when necessary.

I believe there are many more achievements and attestations to my level of success with the company, but that will due for the purpose of this post.

Today I was fired from the company by my District Manager. We'd been having an issue with one of my full-time employees (as well as a demoted assistant manager) that recently (Last Thursday) stole over 4,000$ of merchandise, with a suspected total of over 10,000$ of total stolen items. This employee has had suspicions for a considerable amount of time, and was not dealt with by the District Manager (The only one with firing capabilities), which was against my better judgment of taking action against him.

However, my termination is allegedly not due to this incident at all. I was terminated due to "Failure to Protect Company Assets", with the accusation being:

"Occasionally when working alone, the store would be locked and closed for roughly 3~5 minutes for the current associate working to proceed to the nearest bank (1 block away) and exchange cash for change in order to keep the store's cash drawer replenished. During these times both the associates and manager did not set the Siemen's Security alarm, therefore opening up potential theft issues that could have lost assets for the company."

During my time working with them, I've had the opportunity to work under several tenured store managers and higher management, of which at no time was it mentioned that you could be terminated for potentially harmful behavior that could have easily been reverted by simply informing the party involved how to correct the issue. This was my first offense ever with the company, that resulted in no loss of product, assets, or company values due to this issue, nowhere in any security documents available to associates and managers at the store level does it make reference to this being a fire-able offense, and this is obviously a behavior that I (or anyone) would immediately fix upon being told it was potentially harmful, and/or could result in termination.

My question to anyone that reads this...was it the correct decision? Do I have a right to be upset at this blatant defamation of character? I plan to take legal action against them, but do I have a case?

I understand that it may be obvious to some people to set the security alarm when leaving for any amount of time, however I was trained that it was within reason to simply lock the doors, put up a sign, and leave for a short amount of time to benefit the company. Sure I'm looking for people who agree with me, but I'd like to know from perspectives not my own if you find this unacceptable on either side (My fault or otherwise).

I appreciate the time taken to read this, and any responses that may come (good or bad).

[Remyo]

snip

I'd get a lawyer. retail sucks anyhow. which company was it?

[Tyche]

Whether you have a case or not depends on if it is employment at will (or termination at will). It is possible for a company to fire you for no reason as long as it's not retaliatory or discrimination. If I'm reading this correctly, I don't have an issue with them firing you.

Edit: Every state has different exceptions (and some no net at all). You'll need to research your state.

[Sqwunk]

I think that if you want to know if you have a case worth fighting for your best bet would be to bring it to a lawyer to get his/her opinion first.

As for my opinion, I think that's pretty bullshit that they did this to you. At the very least you should have gotten off with a warning and shown how to fix the mistake. And also since you left the store with only 2 people remaining to watch over things, if any assets did go missing, it's kind of obvious where they went. It's not like you had a store full of employees. (If I read it correctly)

Is it also a possibility that you bring this up to your district manager's boss. Possibly they could look at your side of the story and give you your job back and have the district manager scolded(although I don't know much about how they work with each other at that level of management)

[Souj]

dunno if you have a case or not. probably not. They wanted you gone though, so they took the first opportunity to do so.
same thing kinda happened to me once when I was working at Subway. I had no prior trouble, and one night I forgot to lock the safe at night after we were closed that barely ever held more than $1000 in it(the store was locked up), and they called me in the morning to fire me. the newer store manager didn't like the old one, think she knew her personally, so she was firing all the older employees. If I cared about the job, I would have done something about it, but I was 18 at the time and had a better job a month later, which I'm sure is different than your circumstance.

[kuronosan]

You must work for Sears too. They're the most fucked up company there is in retail.

[Hiro Lionheart]

Hint for company:

-Based out of Fort Worth, TX
-Over 4500 stores nationwide
-Recently sold all of their stores in Canada, but refused to sell the name (They had to rename them in Canada)
-One of the only companies that uses Siemen's Security
-Smaller retail store, but well known. Average staff size is 3~7 (depending on store volume)
-Was rumored to be going out of business about 2 years ago

Who am I? >.>;

[gt_killa]

Dollar Store?

[Akanei]

Going with Radio Shack

[burrito]

Hint for company:

-Based out of Fort Worth, TX
-Over 4500 stores nationwide
-Recently sold all of their stores in Canada, but refused to sell the name (They had to rename them in Canada)
-One of the only companies that uses Siemen's Security
-Smaller retail store, but well known. Average staff size is 3~7 (depending on store volume)
-Was rumored to be going out of business about 2 years ago

Who am I? >.>;

GameStop.

[Lujei]

GameStop.

Wasn't that EB?

[burrito]

Wasn't that EB?

Not sure, I walked out from that job years ago. The location gave it away I think--- at least I remember my paychecks coming from Grapevine(?), Texas... which iirc is near Dallas.... that, or we got REALLY lost trying to find the movie theatre one day.

[Sqwunk]

K-Mart

[Hiro Lionheart]

Going with Radio Shack

Winner~

[Headspace]

Winner~

You're better off fired.

[Hiro Lionheart]

It was a smaller retail company compared to other big names, but my working there for an extended period of time was for the well known name, as well as their level of excellence required to move up. I've been offered in the past several jobs, but planned on staying with them a bit longer, hoping for a promotion to District Manager, before putting out a resume' to employers.

Guess there's little choice at this point~

[guartz]

yay I guessed radio shack too.

what we win?!

[Cochise]

shit always rolls down hill... your district manager will still have a mark preventing him from getting further promotions though.

that or he was told to start training you for his position and decided to protect his owns interests and get rid of the competition.

[Lampoon]

You'll spend more than you get in return if you fight. That's how these companies operate. But you should have shown initiave in regards to store policies and operations. Lesson learned. Next time don't be afraid to ask extra questions.

[Shuemue]

You should probably just move on. People are assholes and do asshole things just to further their own interests. Is there any way you can negotiate the situation so you're resigning with a reference rather than being fired? Any dirt on your direct superior?