Worker Receives Huge Payout In Lawsuit, Teaching Power-Hungry Manager A Lesson
Interview With Author
Knowing your rights as an employee is crucial. You never know when the company might try to take advantage of its workers because they assume not everyone will know the policies. But knowing your rights at work is important so you can feel safe, not have to tolerate discrimination or bullying, and know when you can receive compensation.
The OP in this story was particularly legally savvy. They even wrote in their post how they’re “very aware of [their] state’s employee’s rights policies.” This came in handy when an employer tried to fire the OP without paying out the final check in time. Knowing their rights, our protagonist knew that something smelt fishy, and they contacted a lawyer.
The author of this post, u/collector-x, agreed to tell Bored Panda more about the story. They provided more context and details about the new store policy that resulted in them getting fired. Read on and find our interview with them below!
Getting fired from a job can cause many complications in one’s life
Image credits: Anna Shvets / pexels (not the actual photo)
But this person outsmarted the management and got an extra check after their termination
Image credits: Sora Shimazaki / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image credits: Sora Shimazaki / pexels (not the actual photo)
Image source: collector-x
One of the reasons OP decided to share this story was to encourage people to know their rights as employees
Image credits: Andrea Piacquadio / pexels (not the actual photo)
Bored Panda reached out to the OP of this story, and they were kind enough to tell us why they decided to post this on r/antiwork. The Redditor says it was a good way to let out the pent-up emotions, even if the situation happened years ago.
However, u/collector-x also wanted to bring attention to how important it is to know your rights as an employee, especially your state’s laws. The OP says you shouldn’t “just follow along blindly according to what the company says if it’s actually wrong.”
The author talked about this briefly in their post, but they became familiar with their state’s employee rights while helping to write the employee handbook at a previous job. “[I] became very familiar [with] how things needed to be done regarding all aspects of state requirements, from lunches and breaks to when final checks are required to be given.”
With years of experience and knowledge, the OP knew what new policies could hurt the company
“I had always been in this particular industry ever since I was in high school,” the OP tells Bored Panda. “So by the time I got hired at this particular company, directly as a department manager, I had over 25 years [of] experience.”
“Also, within this industry, I specialized in a niche aspect of it that made my skills highly desirable to any shop in the industry and brought in customers specifically looking for someone with this skill set.”
The Redditor tells us more about the specifics of their job. “As the new department manager, I did precisely this to where I had about 15 regular customers that would only work with me because of the nature of their items, and they knew I had the skills needed so no damage would come to them.”
“Also, each time one of my clients came in, it was almost guaranteed the order would be over $1,000, whereas a walk-in customer would be between $25-$200 per order,” the OP goes on. All this knowledge and the years of experience prove that u/collector-x really knew what they were talking about.
The author believed someone in a higher position probably just wanted to show their abilities and went about it the wrong way
Image credits: Edmond Dantès / pexels (not the actual photo)
“I believe the problem started at the corporate level, probably by someone who had just [been] promoted but had never actually worked in the department before,” the Redditor contemplates the company’s decision to fire them.
“I believe they wanted to do something to justify their new position by making a new policy but not actually understanding the consequences this could have,” u/collector-x goes on. “There are times [when] a lot of things look good on paper but in practice, not so much.”
The Redditor gave us more details about why the new policy was faulty
“Every store is designed basically the same way, and there’s a back room for a reason, and [whoever] made this policy decided working on the front counter would be a better idea so customers could ‘see’ us working,” the Redditor explains the root of the problem with the new policy.
u/collector-x tells us that the management made a new policy that every store had to adhere to from then on. And the regional managers were there to ensure that it went smoothly.
“When the [regional manager] came to my store, I wasn’t just blindly going to fall in line without pointing out that this is a bad idea and here is what can happen if we start doing this,” the Redditor explains why they stood up to the management.
“The company could be liable if a customer’s items get damaged. I told her that a lot of the items I worked with are irreplaceable and can be extremely expensive. I gave examples of a piece I had done that had a value of over $750,000.”
“If something like this were to be damaged because of this new policy, the company could and would be sued, and we could lose even more customers just by walk-in customers seeing us working on stuff out front and saying to themselves, ‘If [they] do this with other people’s stuff then they’ll do it with mine,’ and just walk away.”
The explanation didn’t go that well with the Karen-like manager. She got mad at the OP for questioning a corporate policy, as if she didn’t know what she was doing. “Trying to explain this to her with a real-world example of an accident that happened at the front counter the previous week seemed to only make her madder,” the Redditor recounts.
The OP said “getting fired wasn’t a problem” for them because good customer service was more important
Image credits: Headway / unsplash (not the actual photo)
The OP already shared the ending of the story in their post, but they detailed the whole ordeal for us, too. “The week after she left, I get pulled into my [store manager’s] office where there’s a letter saying that I was refusing to follow a direct order, (insubordination), and not following company policy, so I needed to be let go.”
“Getting fired wasn’t a problem for me because I wasn’t going to sacrifice my standards or put a customer’s items in danger,” the Redditor says. “I told the [store manager] and HR: How do you make that phone call to a customer to say: ‘Hi, just calling to let you know your item was damaged by another customer walking by and [spilling] coffee on it?'”
The OP tried to provide an example of such a situation. The customer would probably ask: “How did someone spill coffee on my stuff in the backroom?” And the employees would have to say: “No, we were working on your item out front because company policy says we have to now.”
The OP then said to their managers: “I’m not going to put myself in that situation, so if you’re gonna fire me for that, then fine.” The only condition was that the OP got their check right then.
“This is when HR says it will be sent to me at the end of the pay period. I point[ed] out this is against state law, and they say this is the policy. All checks are sent at the end of the pay period. I said ‘OK’ and left, knowing what they’re doing is wrong, and I wasn’t going to let them get away with it,” the OP reiterates.
The OP gave more information in the comments
Some commenters shared similar stories; others just offered their two cents on the situation
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I really wish I knew how much HMRC fined a former employer who refuses to pay out sick pay (which was covered by HMRC anyway, all they had to do was issue wage slip and make the initial, miniscule payments). I even linked them to the official UK Gov website, where it was explicitly laid out that I was eligible. And I didn't even outright report them initially - I made a general enquiry about my situation and what next steps I could take, and HMRC just turned round and told me to send them the full details. Et voilà, within the week I had my back-pay. Didn't get much in the way of work after that, mind you. Which was a shame, because they were by far the best teaching agency in my area. Guess I was the one unlucky enough to find out what corners they were cutting to keep themselves "good".
$19K is chump change compared to what I've seen ruined by managers and engineers. I've had at least 3 "I told you this would happen" moments for over $100k each. Yes, each time that person was let go the next day.
I really wish I knew how much HMRC fined a former employer who refuses to pay out sick pay (which was covered by HMRC anyway, all they had to do was issue wage slip and make the initial, miniscule payments). I even linked them to the official UK Gov website, where it was explicitly laid out that I was eligible. And I didn't even outright report them initially - I made a general enquiry about my situation and what next steps I could take, and HMRC just turned round and told me to send them the full details. Et voilà, within the week I had my back-pay. Didn't get much in the way of work after that, mind you. Which was a shame, because they were by far the best teaching agency in my area. Guess I was the one unlucky enough to find out what corners they were cutting to keep themselves "good".
$19K is chump change compared to what I've seen ruined by managers and engineers. I've had at least 3 "I told you this would happen" moments for over $100k each. Yes, each time that person was let go the next day.
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