Dear Evil HR Lady,
I was just terminated from my recent place of employment. I was under their “6 month probationary period”. Their reason for firing me was absenteeism. They were concerned that I had used up my paid time off so soon and that it would develop into a problem.
Now, I have missed work for 3 reasons totaling 5 days in four months.
Day 1- doctors excused contagious flu (Mid April)
Day 2- the final hours of my grandmothers life ( she raised me) ( Early June)
Day 3- the following day to deal with the grief. ( same as #2)
Day 4&5- this past weekend I told my boss I was sick at work on Saturday, finished my shift and tasks 100%. On Sunday morning I passed out and hit my head, opening a small cut. I patched myself up and my fiancee drove me into work. On the way in, I passed out 2 more times in the car and was taken to the emergency room. I was kept out of work that day and the next. ( early August)
I am currently in a state of purgatory, deciding to fight this or move on and use this as a learning experience. I would greatly appreciate some advice.
To read the answer, click here: Can I fight my termination?
I hate to say we need more laws, but we need more and better laws protecting employees.
This very well could have been a series of uncommon and unfortunate events.
What is too common is people that have frequent unscheduled absences for one set of events often have frequent unscheduled absences for a different set of events.
This is a company with a 6 month probation period which means they are going to be looking very closely at attendance, etc. Not saying right or wrong, just saying if your on a probationary period expect to be held accountable no matter the excuse.
I agree that they should have simply exercised at-will instead of the given “excuse” for termination.
She did nothing wrong. She used the time for legitimate reasons, and it was time that was allotted to her. The reason for termination seems grossly unfair. They owe her an explanation.