by Kelly
(Austin, TX USA)
I was fired from my job on June 12, 2009. As per the termination paperwork they gave me, it says “Company Procedure Violations – You are terminated for inefficient and careless performance of duties”.
Basically for making mistakes!
I was hired May 2007 as a Billing & Dispatch Clerk for a delivery company here in Texas, and did that job for my first 9 months, with no problems or write-ups.
Then in Jan 2008, they “promoted” me to the dispatcher position and had me doing that, altho I feel I was never really trained properly nor “qualified” enough to handle the job, since I had only lived in Texas for so long and didn’t know the area well enough to route the drivers.
Their way of training was yelling at and berating me mostly. I know it’s not against the law for a boss to be a butthead to you – just as long as it’s not discriminatory in nature – but it all made it feel like a hostile and uncomfortable work environment for me (I’m female by the way).
I got a write-up in May 2008 for failing to contact a customer that their freight was delivered damaged. I never made that mistake again!
Things went fine from there – altho I’d still get taken into the office to get yelled at for things and told how poor of a job I was doing. Altho I couldn’t understand if they knew I couldn’t do the job – why did they let me keep working in the position?
In October 2008, they laid off a girl who was working in the dispatch office with us, and then in February 2009, another guy in the dispatch office was transferred to a new warehouse.
So that left just three of us working the dispatch office – me, my boss and the night guy who came in at 11:30am-12:00pm.
Most of the time my boss would be out doing deliveries on his own or other things, leaving me in the office to handle ALL the phone calls, the clerical duties AND the dispatch stuff. I was doing the work of 2 people most of the time, and at times, I had to wait 3-4 hours before I could even use the restroom since I was told to never leave the dispatch office “unattended”, and had to wait for my boss or the night guy to show up.
So, since I was totally over-whelmed at times, not properly suited for the job – in my opinion and the company’s – I ended up making some mistakes.
Feb 19, 2009, I got a written warning and suspended for a day for telling a consignee over the phone (a person we were delivering freight for, for a customer of ours), that we were holding the freight on the dock since the shipper was behind in their payments and I was told by the accounting department that freight wasn’t allowed to leave the dock because of that. My boss overheard me tell this person this over the phone and had a fit.
Apparently, I wasn’t supposed to do that – and I was never told about it, until he presented me with the write-up and said that he had to suspend me for a day to “save my job” since it was something you get get terminated for and he didn’t want that person to call the shipper and end up telling them what I had said about their account situation!
So lesson learned – never did that again!
On June 12, 2009 is when I was fired, since there was a couple of other incidents with other customers – he claimed I screwed up on.
One he said that the customers called and complained about the poor service I was providing them – altho I have an email of proof from one of them, thanking us for the good job we did, and then other customer denied even making a complaint to my boss – since my boss said he had called and “chewed him out” – when the customer said he never did.
I work for a company that fights UI claims, and of course I was denied when I filed. I did file for my appeal on June 25th – but haven’t heard anything about my date yet (I read it takes 4-6 weeks!).
After I got fired, I typed up my own statements about everything that had happened – my side of things, got the email from the customer, and also mentioned in my statements the things I went thru while be “trained” for this position and just how I felt I was fired at the employer’s “convenience” since the last “incident” was June 8th, my termination paperwork was dated June 11th, and then I was fired at the end of the work-day on Friday, June 12th!
In all, I just feel as if this company chewed me up and spit me out. I even came down with Grave’s Disease while I worked there, but toughed it out and didn’t miss any work – since I was terrified of losing my job over taking too much time off of work – which happened to another person who worked there!
I’m just hoping, based on what I’ve explained here, that I have a chance for winning my appeal?
I mean, I did get written up a few times – altho for all different matters, not the same one over and over again.
I don’t know if it matters much that I found out thru the grapevine that my boss didn’t like me because I was Gay (altho I never “flaunted” that fact at the workplace), and also didn’t like the fact that I’m Atheist – and even made a big stink about it in the office one day when we were discussing some religious stuff.
So, sorry for the long story. If you have any questions to ask me – let me know. I’ve been off work for a month now, and it’s tough out here in Texas to find work. I’ve applied at about 40 places so far with only two interviews.
I’m really hoping to win the appeal!
Hi Kelly,
I hope you do too!!
When you get to hearing just focus on the fact that you did the job to the best of your ability and how all the errors were inadvertent and not intentional. As well as the fact that your only training was while be yelled at for making mistakes. The actual mistakes do matter. Repeating the same mistakes after being warned is never good.
Now tell me this .. the incident that you were fired for .. is there a written “procedure”?
inefficiency is basically “inability”. Inability is not misconduct, but carelessness is. That is what the employer will be trying to prove. You said over and over that once you learned something .. you never did it again. So focus on how procedural errors that the employer says you made only became known to you when you made a mistake and once corrected by the employer you were never written up for the same again.
You know what Kelly, good cause or the lack of it in your case .. very often can only be determined correctly with actual testimony from both sides which fully develop the circumstances. Initial determinations denying because an employer has write-ups, usually lack the full story .. an unemployment hearing is a fact-finding mission and most hearing officers are fair and impartial, but if we accept that we can only get unemployment when we lose our job through no fault of our own .. it should stand to reason that it has to be found that the employer was at fault so that’s always the focus.
Did you look over the TX precedent manual (bottom right of the page.)
You’re right about it not being against the law for a boss to be a butthead:) but an unemployment hearing is a great place to get that butthead to show his ass through your questions .. when given the opportunity.
Chris
Comments for Fired – Failed to Perform to Employer Satisfaction
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