by Anonymous
(CO)
I am a 22 year old college student in Colorado. I began working at a retail sales company in June 2008. In June 2010 I was given an additional job beyond opening/closing the store and providing customer service; the owner put me in charge of ordering all the product from a specific vendor. Because I was a part-time employee, I often worked 3 -4 hour shifts during the week, and an 8 hour shift on weekends. I was often assigned to work the floor or registers all day, which left me little to no time to complete my ordering task. I began taking my ordering home with me and completing it there, unpaid. In October 2010, I requested a meeting with the HR department to discuss this issue. There is record of the meeting taking place. We decided I would be given one day a month, on weekends, to work on my ordering without disruption, which worked well for a few months.
In December 2010, the owner’s daughter took over as manager of our branch of the store. She now became responsible for the scheduling, and subsequently, I was no longer given my time each month to complete my additional tasks. The store offered a number of gift wrapping offers, and thus always became very busy leading up to the holidays, and even into February. In March 2011, I discussed instore with my manager my frustrations with my current job. The same evening, I sent an email to her further detailing the struggles I was facing with completing my job. I still have the sent copy of this e-mail.
Beginning in January 2011, I began to develop some suspect medical issues which indicated a significant autoimmune disease. I did miss a number of days of work, but was able to provide medical proof for many of them. In April, I missed one Sunday and received a hostile e-mail from my boss, who not only accused me of calling in because I had attended a concert the evening before (not true) but also called me, among other things, extremely unreliable. Because I had already brought my complaints to HR and the store manager, I was incredibly upset with my job at this point, and gave my two weeks. I offered up the option of returning my key and taking a demotion for my last two weeks, but she instead told me not to return to work at the store. I have all of these e-mails as well.
I found another job relatively quickly but the company went out of business in September. My boss at that job led me to believe that I would get unemployment from this company, but I had not made enough money with them and I ended up receiving benefits from the retail establishment instead. I did get the benefits (the notice of decision stated that I had worked excessive hours without pay), but my boss is now contesting them.
She is providing copies of our final exchange, as well as copies of the schedules for the days I called in. In response, I have my e-mail to the store manager, a number of doctor’s notes including several indicating that I have active rheumatoid arthritis that has been developing since January 2011, and my e-mail to the HR department detailing our meeting in October 2010. I plan to argue that I took my complaint to proper authorities within the company and nothing was resolved permanently, as well as that, despite being absent for circumstances beyond my control during this last period of employment (Jan 2011 – April 2011), my frustrations with my job should have been resolved in a suitable manner. Is this going to get me anywhere?
Hi,
Out of all that .. this is what I found as the motivation for you resigning from your job.
“In April, I missed one Sunday and received a hostile e-mail from my boss, who not only accused me of calling in because I had attended a concert the evening before (not true) but also called me, among other things, extremely unreliable. Because I had already brought my complaints to HR and the store manager, I was incredibly upset with my job at this point, and gave my two weeks.”
It now might be easier to respond to your question if I knew exactly what details you provided to the CDLE.
Clearly, I’m missing details about the information you offered about the excessive hours without pay.
As I read you story it seemed to me working without pay was in fact, your choice.
Any proof the employer forced you into this?
Any proof you tried to resolve the issue again after you got the new manager?
Your real reason indicates to me you quit because of a conflict with the new daughter/manager with whom, and at the very least, you thought because you had already addressed the issue before with HR .. there was no need to inform them again of a new problem.
But again, the fact that Colorado, a rather strict state, gave you benefits in the first place has me baffled because of the reason you gave me for quitting.
“Because I had already brought my complaints to HR and the store manager, I was incredibly upset with my job at this point, and gave my two weeks.”
Had you made the employer aware of your health condition and the fact that some of the time consuming duties you were being required to do were detrimental to the progression of the awful disease you suffer from to get another accommodation?
It’s the only glimmer of hope I can see in the information you provided.