Wrongful Termination??

[John2244]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX
I was lead engineer of a team with over 25 years experience ... never been fired before, excellent ratings from all my past reviews Usually in top 10%. In fact I was asked to join this group by my Mgr. and he even wrote note to me months previous saying thank you for a good job. A new engineer joined our group and for many months had been doing what I thought was very unethical cherry picking of data to make things look good and edify himself. The other engineers agreed with me and were concern his methods were going to be a black eye for the rest of us, since the group was new and a VP from finance had already warned he was tired of all these fake savings from everyone (generalization). So the engineers asked me to talk with my Mgr. who was new to Healthcare - 1st year. I did and he got mad at me because he liked the guy in question... but I told him it was just not me, the rest of our team and others outside our team were questioning integrity. Next morning I was fired for being hostile toward team mates and management. My co-worker engineer quit just days later because he said this was shock to him and wanted to get out . Everyone was shocked, especially since my performance reviews were coming back as outstanding, 3 Directors doing my ratings, and they liked me so much they told me in advance. My manager fired me 1 week before my reviews, with my positive reviews in his hands and knowing I just got award for being part of a group that had the most approved ideas for cost saving for the whole company. All my reviews are coming from this company, many will support me and feel this was a pers. issue with my Mgr's Ego vs. substance. I even offered to work with this 'cherry picking" engineer next year to ensure the project were done correctly, ethical calculation with not insane exaggerations. Even Our Admin. got upset when she saw what was being done and admitted this is just not right to do what they did to me. A couple people tried to help by going to some senior people but were also afraid they would lose their jobs. So is this wrongful termination? Basically a backlash for standing up for principals that the other IEs asked me to .... some say it was a budget cut and they just used it as excuse. My one friend there did say that my mgr. said he was going to replace me with someone who had less experience and just out of college. Two other process improvement senior people had been let go earlier this year with no warning. Note, never written up, no bad record ,my project leads and co-workers, senior quality team, research leadership all liked me very much and would never say I was hostile?? Legal Case or not... and how do I prevent them from blocking me from other jobs in the area?

 

[Proserpina]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? TX
I was lead engineer of a team with over 25 years experience ... never been fired before, excellent ratings from all my past reviews Usually in top 10%. In fact I was asked to join this group by my Mgr. and he even wrote note to me months previous saying thank you for a good job. A new engineer joined our group and for many months had been doing what I thought was very unethical cherry picking of data to make things look good and edify himself. The other engineers agreed with me and were concern his methods were going to be a black eye for the rest of us, since the group was new and a VP from finance had already warned he was tired of all these fake savings from everyone (generalization). So the engineers asked me to talk with my Mgr. who was new to Healthcare - 1st year. I did and he got mad at me because he liked the guy in question... but I told him it was just not me, the rest of our team and others outside our team were questioning integrity. Next morning I was fired for being hostile toward team mates and management. My co-worker engineer quit just days later because he said this was shock to him and wanted to get out . Everyone was shocked, especially since my performance reviews were coming back as outstanding, 3 Directors doing my ratings, and they liked me so much they told me in advance. My manager fired me 1 week before my reviews, with my positive reviews in his hands and knowing I just got award for being part of a group that had the most approved ideas for cost saving for the whole company. All my reviews are coming from this company, many will support me and feel this was a pers. issue with my Mgr's Ego vs. substance. I even offered to work with this 'cherry picking" engineer next year to ensure the project were done correctly, ethical calculation with not insane exaggerations. Even Our Admin. got upset when she saw what was being done and admitted this is just not right to do what they did to me. A couple people tried to help by going to some senior people but were also afraid they would lose their jobs. So is this wrongful termination? Basically a backlash for standing up for principals that the other IEs asked me to .... some say it was a budget cut and they just used it as excuse. My one friend there did say that my mgr. said he was going to replace me with someone who had less experience and just out of college. Two other process improvement senior people had been let go earlier this year with no warning. Note, never written up, no bad record ,my project leads and co-workers, senior quality team, research leadership all liked me very much and would never say I was hostile?? Legal Case or not... and how do I prevent them from blocking me from other jobs in the area?

Not a wrongful termination.

 

[Shadowbunny]

A wrongful termination doesn't mean you were fired for an unfair reason. WT exists when someone is terminated for a reason prohibited by law (gender, religion, race, disability, etc). You can be fired because you rub someone the wrong way. You can be fired for rubbing someone the right way. As long as you're not fired BECAUSE you're in a protected class, it's legal. (Assuming you don't have a contract or are a part of a union.)

 

[Chyvan]

My manager fired me. . . .

Go file for unemployment.

 

[cbg]

No legal case. Not a wrongful term as defined by law. Possibly unfair, but unfair and illegal are two different things.

File for unemployment.

 

[commentator]

Agree. Not wrongful, but when you file for unemployment, which everyone who is terminated for any reason should do immediately, it will help to establish what the company's separation information that they are going to provide for you will be. This is sort of an idea of what they are going to be telling future employers and how they plan to procede. Even if there was a wrongful termination, any sort of other legal issues, you'd take up later, after you'd filed for unemployment benefits anyway.

What it sounds like to me is that they had plans to get rid of you anyhow as a cost savings. They can do this, it's legal. In the absence of a union contract, they don't have to get rid of people by seniority or using any other such criteria. In the absence of your going in to have a talk with the supervisor, you might've found yourself walked out the door later that same week for another made up reason, or they might've simply told you that you were being "downsized," or layed off. One of those terms. The talk you decided to have with them may well have been just an excuse.

But since the actually did tell you that you were terminated, talk immediately to the unemployment office and file the claim, explaining the reasons why the company says they terminated you, even though you had been doing our job to the best of your abilities and had no idea there was something that they did not like about your job performance. Mention your glowing reviews in the past. Mention the lack of warnings about your job performance or inabilities to get along with other co workers, or whatever it was.

Unless the meeting you had with your supervisor involved screaming and shouting and punches thrown, it probably does not rise to the level of gross misconduct sufficient to reasonably result in a termination. And if you are laid off and the company cannot show they had a valid misconduct reason to terminate you, you will at least be able to draw unemployment benefits for the time while you are looking for other employment.

Most of the time in the work world of today, that's your only recourse. There was probably an age bias thing at work here, though it would be very tough indeed to prove it. What IS your age? You said you had been there 25 years.

Or it may simply be an "ethics" question, in that your managers want to become more unethical and you are bothering their conscience. But engineering is one field in which you must work very hard to stay current and will be considered more and more of a liability to some companies if you have been around a while, even if you are doing a wonderful job. Hopefully you can find a better place now that you have been forcibly removed from where you were.

 

[LdiJ]

Not a wrongful termination.

Maybe...there are some vague hints in there that age discrimination could be factoring in. Its vague but its worth exploring with an employment attorney.