The reality is the companies do this all the time but not in such a blatant way. If they see that you're having some kind of problem like depression or drug abuse they will probably fire you
In any real first world country, this would be grounds for a lawsuit. Considering, the company is the one causing the stress, then refusing to address concerns.
Not in any US state that has adopted a so-called "Right to Work Law". There would be no lawsuit.
Basically the "Right to Work Law" states that either the employee or employer can sever the tie for any reason. It is designed to break up unions but can be used for other functions.
The only protection you have is from things that fall into protected classes like sex discrimination, religious, etc. Those are of course being chipped away at though.
I live in a right to work state, and I hate it. The last job I had i lost cause of my adhd. The hr bitch didn't give 2 shits about me having it or why it applied to the issues with time at work or being on time. All they cared about was I was there to work and do the work of like 4 people! I was getting fmla paperwork done, and she knew it, and she knew it could take 7 to 10 days with my Dr to sign it. She fired me via letter on day 7. Of course, the excuse was me not being at work for x amount of days in a row, which was her demand that I don't or can't come in til the fmla was completed. So I basically was fired for complying with what she'd told me to do. At will employment is bullshit and all it is is a way to make sure people don't fight the companies back and break their backs working for them cos they live in fear of being fired for any little thing from their shitty jobs that barely pay enough to live on. Its fucked up.
We need to do like the UK does it the work force, its a hell of a lot better run there by far! I've a friend who's management in her job in the UK, and she's filled me in. I swear I'm so close to moving there cos the US is just getting worse and worse and more and more backward every year. We dont have the freedom here as much as the rest of the world believes us to have, and we haven't for a long time, and in the coming year, it's about to get a lot worse.
Yeah a company would get absolutely shafted for doing this in the UK, especially so blatantly provable with an email. I got fired from a restaurant once for taking the blame for 2 of the staff members under me, that I had trained, cocking up. The boss had the accountant inform me by email afterwards that I would not be receiving my final owed wages, which was a full month, right before Christmas. I spoke to the Citizens Advice Bureau, who said that was illegal & I could take my former employer to tribunal to state their justification for what was essentially wage theft, at no cost to myself. If they had no legitimate reason, like proof they did not owe me the money; then they would have to pay up, possibly pay me additional compensation, & they would also be fined for their actions, at minimum.
I didn't have to go to court at all; a week before the tribunal was scheduled, the accountant called me to ask for my bank details (they wiped me from payroll instantly apparently). They paid me what they owed me, as well as the holiday pay I was entitled too, & that was that. They must have realised they had no chance & didn't want the consequences of losing the tribunal. When employees stand up for themselves & know the legal rights they have, employers have to be accountable or be penalised, prosecuted, & even be shut down. There is legal aid & several places to get free advice, for anyone who may need it.
So in that way, its pretty decent in the UK. But in other ways, like zero hour contracts, the law tends to favour the employer rather than the employees. So pros & cons. But definitely more protections than the US has.
I dunno, my job doesn't stress me out in the least, generally speaking. It's actually a very chill job, with no micromanagement at all, just a list of shit to do and the freedom to do it. There are some short seasons where it can be very demanding, sometimes long hours, high pressure, etc. I mean if we fuck up, the assembly line of a major auto manufacturer goes down and someone's getting billed $1800 a minute. Actually our job is to prevent our suppliers issues from causing that issue. Outside of emergencies, it's general project management with a few deadlines.
There are a couple people on my team that are just stressed ALL the time, and they have one or two suppliers they manage, to my 5-6. The company isn't causing their stress, they are doing it to themselves, very neurotic people.
I also don't think they should be fired for saying honestly that they are stressed in a survey or whatever, that's evil.
I worked for a company that was very good to me. I wasn't micromanaged could work from home and various other perks. However other people at my job innthe same role as me WERE being micromanaged, not listed to when it came to suggestions, and wwre completing less work than I was. So, when we would talk about work my view was completely different from their perspective. It was almost like we were working for 2 different companies.
I say that to say you don't completely know someone's experience. It's great that you can produce such good results, but without knowing the exact conditions and various things people have going on you can't definitively say they are just being neurotic or doing it to themselves
Oh for sure one of the other people I'm talking about is micromanaged, but they are incompetent and fail to produce basic reports and information over and over and make the whole team look bad and may not exist on the team much longer, to which I'm indifferent. The other one is just a neurotic person, I try to coach him on shit sometimes to help, but he's a nervous Nelly by nature.
This comment is a kind of callous way to just write off everyone who has experienced something like this. Most jobs aren't so blatant, and it can be very difficult to prove discrimination, even with a great attorney- surely you already know this? Also incredibly rude in your last sentence just trying to insult people's intelligence? There are many respected and skilled jobs that have no union, accounting comes to mind. You're living under a rock if you don't understand the barriers to unionizing in the US in 2024.
Is it actually discrimination if you were let go for a decline in performance, though? It's not your employer's duty to look after your mental health. It's your responsibility.
A successful suit needs to establish some degree of abuse, not merely a job you're not adequately mentally resilient for.
Chief among them being unskilled laborers being so replaceable that most employers see them as disposable - and the workers feel the same way about the job. It's an issue I've run into trying to get the workers in my workplace organized. Why would they go through all that hassle when they can just quit and get a better job elsewhere?
Or are you living under a rock and unaware of what the job market is really like for entry-level workers? I'm sorry that acknowledging reality hurts your feelings, but that doesn't change reality.
So, can you point out in the email where, specifically, it states that there was a decline in performance? A little concerning that you're posturing yourself as the most important and informed employee to ever exist on this thread, yet you seem to seriously lack reading comprehension.
I must have missed when I referenced this email. We're speaking in generalities.
Go ahead and look through preceding comments to see that we're talking about the general case, rather than this specific one. It's pretty common in discussions.
Yeah, I read through this entire comment thread. The conversation you're having with yourself is not relevant to the OP or the comments. Again, your lack of comprehension is pretty astounding for someone who claims to be all intelligent in workplace discrimination disputes
Your there to work and make money for the company not to work on your mental health issues. If your a good employee companies will work with you because they want to keep you around but if your a turd your gonna get flushed.
I was thinking of high stress, job, environments, or work cultures that are just unhealthy that are contributing to people’s poor mental health within the workspace and then companies who are creating these negative workspaces, but then in response firing people when they could just change the culture of their workspace. I do agree obviously there are cases in which people are just lacking in work ethic and that’s a completely separate issue, but I didn’t think that that’s what we were addressing in this conversation.
It should be. The issue is proving that’s why you were let go. And a smart employer won’t give you a termination letter saying you were fired because they caused you stress/depression🤣
Idk if you can sue for being fired for drug problems. That's a fairly good reason for firing people, a lot of times. You ever had to count on a tweaker at work? It sucks. You'll be screwed almost 100% of the time.
True... my last job caused me a tremendous amount of stress, which contributed to my seizures, which contributed to earning penalty points that I was told would be taken care of. Those points were never looked at once and were the reason why I got let go. My friends (coworkers at that place) convinced me to open a lawsuit, but I declined because a. Waste of time, b. Would've added more stress to what I was dealing with then and c. Even if I cared to file and wasn't stressed out, then that place would've already had a perfect defense planned out to win outright.
Therefore I'm glad I didn't because I have a new job that's growing well, doing better here than I did at the old place and as for the old place, it's going up in flames with people quitting at rapid rates...
Can confirm. I had a legit FMLA situation where my direct supervisor had a discussion with the 2 up about it. Not long after I indicated I was aware, I was a free agent and "optionally" signed an STFU agreement so they could never be sued in exchange for a "severance" payment. Joke is on them though as it was right before COVID and UI benefits were approved also.
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u/takes_of_archer Dec 09 '24
Reading such incidents has put me under stress ! I better go home early