Employee Keeps Having Medical Problems, So Company Fires Her. So She Hires An Employment Attorney And Makes Them Pay.

No one likes to get fired. That said, getting fired when you know you didn’t deserve it and because a higher-up doesn’t like you?

That’s something that really sticks in a person’s craw.

OP was taking some time off when a friend urged them to try a new field.

A few years ago, I quit my career in the tech industry. This was after the company I was working for went public and everything went downhill. I was sick of making money for the rich and needed some time to really live life.

I proceeded to spend a few months traveling, working on home projects and really doing whatever the hell I wanted.

One day, about 4 months into my freedom, I was having lunch with my best friend and she told me “You need to stop being lazy and get a job”.

She had recently been hired at a company in the construction industry and mentioned there was an opening. The opening was doing something I had zero experience in, but a change of career was appealing.

I applied and promptly was given a phone interview. I spent a little time researching everything about this position and after many interviews managed to fake my way in.

They found that they liked the work, but hated their boss.

Turns out this position was wildy different from anything I had done before. It taxed me in ways I had never experienced. Not only was my Job stressful, my boss turned into a nightmare.

He had worked there since the company was founded. He was a part of the “good ol boys club”. Now… For everyone that doesn’t know, the construction industry has virtually zero HR.

This was close to a billion dollar company and was still the same way. My boss was a narcissist, misogynist, liar, and downright jerk.

Weirdly, most of that was directed towards others and not me.

My best friend was one person that took the brunt of it. It killed me to hear what he would say to her.

All of this took it’s toll on me.

OP started to have mental health issues that took some time to resolve.

About 3 months into my employment, January 1st hit. I wake up at 2am in the morning with pain in my chest and my head racing a million miles an hour.

Luckily, my roommate was a paramedic and happened to be home. I rush over to her room and yell that I think I’m having a heart attack.

She comes out, takes my vitals, asks some questions, and determines I am most likely having a panic attack.

Sure enough, I calm down and manage to not die. I had never had a panic attack up until then.

Throughout the following week, I continue to have flare ups of chest pain and heart palpitations. I figure something could really be wrong so I go to my Doctor.

He does a few tests and determines its most likely some acid reflux. He prescribes some meds and the following week is better.

Then, one night when heading home from dinner with my Sister, BOOM, I get rear ended at a stop light by a drunk driver.

No skid marks. Didn’t even attempt to stop.

I felt a bit of tightness in my back so decide to go get checked out at the hospital to be safe. I get there and they take my vitals. My blood pressure was on the moon. Like 180/100. They take it about a hour later and it’s still high.

They recommend I go see my doctor again.

The next couple weeks waiting for my doctor appointment is hell. I am having daily “panic” attacks, chest pain, trouble breathing, massive fatigue. The whole gambit.

Finally get to the day of my appointment, let my doctor know what’s going on, and he determines I should go see a few different specialist and get all kinds of tests done to be safe.

Throughout the next couple months and have everything poked and prodded. Because of the amount of tests that needed to be done, I missed a good bit of work.

This turned my boss on me. He constantly complained about me being gone.

All the while not an ounce of work was dropped.

Still, she tried keeping her head down.

With my tech background, I also took it upon myself to start making reports and collecting data that I would present to him on ways of improving the department and company.

I later found out, he would take these reports, which at times could save the company hundreds of thousands to potentionally millions of dollars and present them as his own to the owner. This made me furious and didn’t help with my physical issues.

However, slowly I made it through all of the prescribed tests and they couldn’t find anything physically wrong with me. Turns out, all of the issues were caused by stress and anxiety. Something I had never had an issue with before.

My doctor referred me to an amazing counselor that helped me learn how to manage the problems I was facing and get back to a reasonable state of mind. Although, this never got to an acceptable level because of my boss.

I started to email HR with my issues with him and things I have witnessed with others. Most of this was met with unwillingness to help in any way.

Then there was a meeting at work to discuss his “misbehaviors.”

A dear coworker whom everyone loved and respected decided to quit out of nowhere. She too worked under my boss. In her exit interview, she gave the sole reason for quitting as my boss.

She finally hit her breaking point and enough was enough. However, because she was so well liked, this prompted some questions from the owner and other senior management. They wanted to know why my boss was the reason for her leaving.

They had HR setup a meeting with us in the department and our boss to go over our issues with him. We all were excited to finally, hopefully, get the people that matter to listen.

We have the meeting and we all lay out the issues with our boss and give a multitude of examples. I went a bit overboard and had an entire presentation. Turns out this was all a charade to cover my bosses ass. He was “prescribed” some management counseling which I’m pretty sure he never did and things continued on their merry way.

However, now… With the knowledge my boss had of our issues with him, he turned the volume up to 11. The constant berating, yelling, write ups came flowing out. It got bad enough that I started to secretly record every meeting with him.

I saved every single email and documented every interaction with him. I continued to push for help from HR, but again, his status in the company kept him immune from any response.

Thankfully, throughtout all of this, I managed to keep my mental health in check thanks to my counselors tools.

When OP got sick again, her boss fired her.

Yes… I get sick, but this time it’s with a real cold and lasts a few days. All of which covered by government mandated sick time. I come back to work and not even a week goes by and I get called into my bosses office with other senior management.

I knew this wasn’t good. My boss let’s me know that they are firing me for attendance. I am gobsmacked. I have never been fired in my life and I know I was an asset to the company’s success.

I didn’t slack off, I didn’t miss deadlines, the attendance excuse appeared to just be what my boss thought would be easiest to get rid of me with.

Now…. I live in an at will state. You can be fired for basically any reason except for a bad one. They presented me with a meager 2 week pay severance.

I declined signing it, packed my stuff up and left.

She was stunned and went to see an employment lawyer.

I knew the whole situation didn’t feel right, especially because I was familiar with the recent state laws that passed about sick time and an employer not being legally allowed to fire you for using it.

Because of this, I went to my mom who’s been in the law field her entire life and got a referral for an employment law attorney.

The day of my appointment with the employment law attorney couldn’t come quick enough. I had gathered everything I had collected from my time at the company and presented it to him.

The recordings on my phone, the emails, the documented interactions, everything. After showing the attorney, he pushes back from his desk and says “Holy shit. You have a hell of a case here. They messed up bad”.

A wave of relief flows over my entire body. Me thinking the only blatant violation was firing me for using sick time, I was taken aback when he proceeded to explain that the company made 4 huge violations.

The sick time violation not even being anywhere near the top of the list.

Some big things I learned from him:

• The meeting I had with my boss, HR, and the rest of the department where we went over all of our issues with him was a key piece of evidence for one of their biggest violations.
• I learned this type of meeting is considered protected concerted activity and covered under the National Labor Relations Act. The act protects against retaliation for having this kind of meeting. According to my lawyer all of my bosses activities following that meeting can be considered retaliation.
• When it comes to health issues and how they affect you at your workplace, make sure you document every interaction with your employer.
• It’s important to show that you made an effort to let them know of your complications and how they may affect you at your workplace.
• I sent countless emails to HR letting them know of my mental health issues and their failure to make accommodations was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
• Having recordings and documentation on how your employer interacts differently with females and males is important to prove a violation of the Civil Rights Act.

When she went back with her case, she got the severance she deserved.

After all of this, the lawyer stated I had three options.

Option one, I could retain him and we could file a lawsuit. He explained that would be expensive and take a lot of time. However, would most likely result in a good amount of money.

Option two, I could file claims with all of the Departments that cover the violated Acts. He explained that some of these departments can take years to investigate and process the claims. However, for some of them, especially the violation of the National Labor and Relations Act, the investigation can be absolute hell on the employer. This would probably be the biggest F you to the employer.

Option three, I go back by myself and renegotiate the severance. This being the quickest and easiest option. This option sounded very appealing, I really didn’t want to drag this out for multiple years.

I told the lawyer that option three is most likely my choice and he mentioned that I should probably start negotiations at 9 months of severance and full benefits. After Consulting with people close to me, I decided to go with option three.

I met with HR and Senior Management, explain that I consulted with an employment law attorney, stated all of the acts that he feels they violated, and ask for 9 months of severance.

After a couple weeks negotiating with their attorney, we settled on six months of severance with full benefits.

It’s been a few years since this has happened and it still makes me feel overwhelmingly happy thinking about it. In the end, I found an absolutely amazing job in the same industry.

My ex-boss ended up being moved to a position that wasn’t in management. And hopefully… Nobody will ever have to go through what i and others went through at that company again.

Reddit must hate and love this tale!

The top comment questions whether or not this is even revenge.

After all, she just demanded what was rightfully hers.

They think she should have taken things farther.

But this person says it is basic revenge.

This person would have been mad enough for option 1 or 2.

I don’t know, I enjoyed the story.

Sometimes you take what you can get.

If you liked that post, check out this one about an employee that got revenge on HR when they refused to reimburse his travel.