Current Events > My wife was fired from her job because her mom died.

(+) Yeah! (+)

She worked at a day care center for about a year and a half. She had good attendance, with only a few call outs. Her bosses had just given her a performance raise that no one else got. Her mom passed, she called in saying that she needed a few days for the funeral which was out of town and for her own mental health. 3 days. When she came back to work the owner screamed at her for 30 minutes because she "didn't give enough notice" and continued to pull her in the office throughout the week to bring it up again. A week later she was fired. No prior performance or attendance concerns.
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Didn't give enough notice... The boss probably was looking for an excuse to get rid of her
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Head over to r/legaladvice. This smells fishy. Your wife might have some claim against them.

Either way, that sucks. Hope your wife pulls through.
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They have to give her time off for it.
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LastTomorrow posted...

Didn't give enough notice... The boss probably was looking for an excuse to get rid of her

This.

Also this sounds like a case where she can get unemployment. Usually any case that seems you were unfairly terminated means you can be compensated.
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AlisLandale posted...

Head over to r/legaladvice. This smells fishy. Your wife might have some claim against them.

Either way, that sucks. Hope your wife pulls through.

Second this.
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Relient_K posted...

When she came back to work the owner screamed at her for 30 minutes because she "didn't give enough notice"

Didn't give enough of a notice for attending the death of a loved one? Sounds like the owner had it out for her.

My condolences to your family.
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Grievance policy not in play?
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Greatest country in the world, land of the free, etc.
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cuttin_in_farm posted...

Grievance policy not in play?

She was paid one day of bereavement. I tried to look it up when it happened and I don't think there are really laws for what is required when it comes to bereavement time.My job gave me 3 paid days.
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Asherlee10 posted...

TC - what state are you in?

New York
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Your employee can terminate you for any reason they want except for Protected Class reasons.
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She has worked at 4 different centers in the past 4 or 5 years. Honestly, day care culture just all around is terrible.

First place lost their lease. They gave workers only a weeks notice that they were closing. Whenever the director or owner were having a bad day they just yelled at the workers all day no matter what. They would make up stuff to be mad about.

Second place she needed to take a bus that only ran twice a day. It took 2 hours to get there by bus. They constantly called her 5 minutes before her shift with "oh we don't need you today". At least once a week. So she would lose 4 hours of her day plus bus fare for no pay. Sometimes she would show up for work and they would say "oh we forgot to call you, you can go home/ we don't need you till 1", stuff like that. She found a new job and put in her 2 weeks. They fired her for putting in her two weeks. She was also promised 40 hrs a week when she was originally hired but only got about 25.

Third place her co-teacher repeatedly complained that she didn't like her. She had been there for several years (and had done the same thing to the past 4 teachers she had worked with) so they just fired her after 3 months. Completely came out of no where. No write ups, no warnings, nothing. Their words were "whatsherface doesn't like working with you, and we don't have anywhere else to put you right now, so today is your last day". We tried get unemployment since their reason was so sketchy and they reported to the unemployment office that she was fired for being abusive with the children.

And then the most recent place had a completely toxic environment where everyone hated each other and constantly tried to get one another fired. She tried to stay out of it, but it was just a terrible place to be.
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There is something called wrongful termination.

slipknirvana posted...

There is something called wrongful termination.

people can be liar's.... why we can't trust others especially when working against us :(.
wasn't anything new.

hopefully the problem gets resolved though wrongful termination is BS especially for the situation TC describes.
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Veggeta X posted...

Your employee can terminate you for any reason they want except for Protected Class reasons.

This topic isn't about the legality of it. I'm just saying it sucks and that day care as a field sucks. It really shows that protections for employees are extremely bare bones.
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New York is at will. They can fire you for having the wrong shade of cologne on. As long as it's not a racial or sexual reason, they can legally fire you for anything. It's stupid and asinine, but the truth
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My guess is they regretted giving her a raise and wanted to replace her with some fresh out of college kid for cheaper.

Oh well, she is 110% entitled to unemployment.

Yeah, sucks, but's that life. hopefully your wife has some friends that can help her get another job quickly because it's fucking hard out there to find a job if you don't know anybody.
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Honestly,. you should just go in there and bitchslap the employer a couple of times.
*Bitchsclapping causes no injuries it's just a way of putting someone in his place.

This type of shit needs to be fixed.
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clearaflagrantj posted...

My guess is they regretted giving her a raise and wanted to replace her with some fresh out of college kid for cheaper.

Oh well, she is 110% entitled to unemployment.

yep it saves lives, but they don't give it out under some reasons. if they deny fight for it.
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clearaflagrantj posted...

My guess is they regretted giving her a raise and wanted to replace her with some fresh out of college kid for cheaper.

Oh well, she is 110% entitled to unemployment.

No, she isn't. She was fired for "fault". So she can't get anything right now.

What sucks the most right now is that I don't make enough to support both of us. If she doesn't get something soon we might need to do something drastic like giving up our dog. Thankfully her dad is helping us out (he is paying for our groceries and giving her some cash for helping out around the house).
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So far she has had about 8 interviews. Each "we will call you back by (day)" she has heard has not done so and have dodged her calls to them for follow up. She is at a second interview right now. It is actually the same company as her first day care position so hopefully that gives her a bit of an edge.
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Relient_K posted...

clearaflagrantj posted...

My guess is they regretted giving her a raise and wanted to replace her with some fresh out of college kid for cheaper.

Oh well, she is 110% entitled to unemployment.

No, she isn't. She was fired for "fault". So she can't get anything right now.

What sucks the most right now is that I don't make enough to support both of us. If she doesn't get something soon we might need to do something drastic like giving up our dog. Thankfully her dad is helping us out (he is paying for our groceries and giving her some cash for helping out around the house).

99 times out of 100 the terminated employee wins, it is almost fucking impossible for an employer to get out of paying unemployment unless the employee literally broke a crime (and even then he/she might still win).

I have received unemployment in NY, you need to file for it IMMEDIATELY. You will not be paid retroactively if you put off filing. You guys are foregoing money you are owed by not pursuing it.

Pretty sad how toxic the child care field sounds.
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I hope it works out for you all
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I'll tell her to try when she gets home. I just don't want this place to pull what the last place did where they literally lied and said that she was abusing the children. That was completely ridiculous and we couldn't even get a human on the phone to try to contest it. She ended up getting a job a couple of days after the rejection letter came in the mail so we dropped it.
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sktgamer_13dude posted...

Pretty sad how toxic the child care field sounds.

I don't fucking understand it really. It's insanely expensive, it rivals college tuition in cost, they'll hire 23 year old girls and pay them $10/hr, yet they're all running out of money.

Where is the money going? They're bringing in 10K annually per kid. How are you over budget? It's glorified babysitting.

I wish we could go back in time where one salary supported a family and the stay at home spouse took care of the kids with actual emotional support and for free. But nah now we have two adults working four jobs so they can pay half their household salary to some fucking daycare.

Shit is backwards.

Take them to court IMO.
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JustMyOpinion posted...

Relient_K posted...

So far she has had about 8 interviews. Each "we will call you back by (day)" she has heard has not done so and have dodged her calls to them for follow up. She is at a second interview right now. It is actually the same company as her first day care position so hopefully that gives her a bit of an edge.

I hate the "We'll let you know by <insert random day>" and 90% of the time they don't. It' so easy to change the name and job title on your template and send out a rejection instead of ghosting.

I agree but then I remember I ghost on recruiters and shitty offers all the time, it's just the game.

clearaflagrantj posted...

sktgamer_13dude posted...

Pretty sad how toxic the child care field sounds.

I don't fucking understand it really. It's insanely expensive, it rivals college tuition in cost, they'll hire 23 year old girls and pay them $10/hr, yet they're all running out of money.

Where is the money going? They're bringing in 10K annually per kid. How are you over budget? It's glorified babysitting.

I wish we could go back in time where one salary supported a family and the stay at home spouse took care of the kids with actual emotional support and for free. But nah now we have two adults working four jobs so they can pay half their household salary to some fucking daycare.

Shit is backwards.

not knocking anyone, but people do make bad business and financial decisions that don't put them afloat at best. i ain't one of those people. only can rely on self.
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Under The Employment Standards Code, employees are allowed to take up to three days as bereavement leave to deal with the death of a family member.

If he harassed her for a week and other's heard, sounds like an easy settlement
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Vindris_SNH posted...

Take them to court IMO.

For what? It's not illegal to fire someone and they can't prove she was fired for discrimination. Best course of action is to try and get unemployment while looking for another job.
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I got let go after my brother died. They said I could have the days off, come back and they said nah we gotta let you go. And treating everyone like family was one of their big selling points. Oh well.
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Christ, hey kiddies... Sometimes you get fired. Sometimes employers don't need you anymore, and sometimes they look for reasons, if it weren't for the mess of laws meant to "protect employees" (aka government stepping in the middle of a labor contract betwxt two private citizens) then that employer would be able to just tell you honestly "hey i don't need you anymore, here's some notice, seek employment elsewhere, this is your last 2 weeks here." Sometimes things don't go your way, sometimes through no fault of your own, that's life, the government and all these (apparently flawed) safety nets, have made it hard for people to cope with that reality... Tell her to look for another job or just fail at life and blame the world.
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..Isn't Bereavement required by law? how the fuck can you give proper notice for an unexpected death? I'd understand if it was a friend or distant family member as they aren't included...But an immediate family member, especially your mom, is definitely covered by that...

Relient_K posted...

Honestly, day care culture just all around is terrible.

I agree. My sister used to work in that field.
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Tell her I said to enjoy her settlement.

Very_Unreliable posted...

(aka government stepping in the middle of a labor contract betwxt two private citizens)

A business isn't a private citizen.
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Man what assholes

Dump her.

this sounds fucked

But

The fact that she's had issues that were totally not her fault at every single place of employment is real sketchy

So I'll give her the benefit of the doubt on this one (sorry for her loss)
But given her history

She might be a shitty worker and you only get her side of the story
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