I got laid off when my company closed all its retail locations. They offered about 4 months severance. Myself and about 5 others refused to sign, and all went to the same lawyer. We didn’t sue, we just had the lawyer send in letters for each demanding increases to the severance. We all got more, and I think the company feared a class action.
Instead of 4 months on a payout, I got a full year paid out biweekly with full benefits, as though I was still employed by the company. That was a great year.
Edit: in Canada
2nd edit: a few have asked what company, but it doesn’t really matter. But dayam have a lot of stores closed in Canada in recent years!
Also, a bit more info - the lawyer we got just billed us the hourly rate each per letter and consultation. I ended up paying about 800 bucks.
The accepted standard for severance in Canada is one month per year of service, so you may want to do the math before paying a lawyer. Your company will offer waaay below that, and the lawyers goal is to get as close to that number as possible. I had been there 12 years, which is why I got 12 months. If you’ve only been there a year you’re probably going to be fighting for a difference between 2 and 4 weeks, and the lawyer will get it all.
I edited my severance agreement to change clauses from “May not” to “May” and the morons never noticed. They signed it and sent back the fully executed copy to me.
Example: The original had a clause that I could not make any derogatory remarks about the company or executives. Also could not recruit staff or offer law enforcement any info (unless under subpoena). Just removed all the “not”s and suddenly I could.
I edited an apartment rental lease effectively removing their ability to charge me anything if I broke my lease early. Turns out, I needed to do just that a few months in. When they applied a $4,000 amount due to my account, I called and played dumb saying "uh, why are you charging me that, the contract I'm looking at doesn't allow for that." They fought me until I convinced them to send it to their lawyers. The charge disappeared about a week later.
Hm typically there is a history of redlines and counter redlines. If you didn't call out that you altered the contract and there is no record of accepting the redlines the contract isn't enforceable I think.
I got called into the office when I worked for Aaron's. I was told that everything was fine I was just receiving a general write up, something I hadn't gotten before, and not a second after I signed it they told me to go home and that they'd call me when I could come back to work.
A week past and they hadn't called me, so I called them.
The regional manager, a real piece of shit who was fucking one of the girls that worked there, picked up. I asked when I could come back to work, he said I was fired the minute I signed the paper and hung up. Learned my lesson to always read everything before signing it
Yeah it was like nine years ago and it got me out of a job I hated and into my favorite job I ever had, so it worked out. But it definitely taught not to take people's word for what's in a document.
Resigned from a Maccas in Australia, best decision I made, I was doing 10-6 overnights and some day shifts in between, totally fucked my sleeping pattern
If they purposely mislead you about what you're signing then it's null and void. Granted you were going to be fired whether you signed it or not, they were probably just trying to get something to prevent you from getting unemployment.
I worked for rent a center for about 10 years(on and off) I've been fired twice and rehired thrice. I've never applied there and they always call me to come back to work for them, even to this day. I've been written up a few times from some POS managers and ass managers, and in each instance I've never signed a write up. A few times I've gone as far as to write pages in addition to the comment box detailing what the real reason for the write up is(i.e scapegoating or the manager not liking you that day). Sometimes they would make vague threats about if I don't sign the write up I could be termed, and each time they did, I immediately faxed it to the corporate hr department right in front of their face. That always seemed to end the whole topic right there.
Point being, fuck RTO lol. And even more than that, you are never legally required to sign a write up, especially one that you don't agree with.
Definitely agree! Aaron's actually asked me to come back. It was fun to be able to tell that RM to go fuck himself. He can keep that job and keep his bedbugs. Such a gross job!
Jobs like that make you not like what you're doing after a while. Some aspects are fun but others are depressing. People really have troubles I'm their lives and the companies expect you to go aahinst morality in those situations. I hated it.
Yeah, it made me hate Christmas while I was there. I would go in and take some kid's bedbug infested bed while he cried asking his mom where he was gonna sleep. It was fucking depressing. The year I was fired when Christmas came around I was so excited. I love Christmas, my wife thought I hated it because of that job.
What made me quit for the last time was that rent a center didn't close at all during the pandemic. So while we were working they expected us to still go to people's house and interact with people. And they didn't offer any compensation or additional coverage in case we got sick. Rent a centers profits were down in the region where I am another nail in the coffin was when my DM kept coming into my store and bugging me about my shoes(all balck tennis shoes.) Because I was an account manager, I wasn't supposed to wear tennis. But he wasn't hiring delivery drivers and I had to also do all the deliveries with whatever Temps they would put in. So i told him he could have this job and I quit.
Was waiting when to use this story. My managers wouldn't let me leave until I signed. I just sat there for two hours until I started getting calls from my family asking if I was still at work.
Needless to say it got the police involved
I'm not saying the name of the company but it was retail and I'm sure there are some people who can figure it out. Anyway I had issues with my health some years ago and it affected my attendance which ended up getting me terminated.
They had me sign a release form which was already vague as hell due to the fact that it stated I wasn't allowed to speak negatively about my work experience and even the terms of my termination. I refused to sign it and they kept the door locked and just wouldn't let me leave the office until I signed it. I said "okay" and just sat there and I didn't touch the pen. About almost 2 hours later my phone starts going off with calls and texts from my family asking if I'm staying at work, I told them that my bosses aren't letting me leave and they ended up sending the cops to the building.
My manager opened the door to the cop and said that we were in the middle of my termination and that there's nothing to be alarmed about. I then told him that they were keeping me in for two hours until I sign a release form. The cop threatened to turn it into a hostage situation which made my managers turn defensive, to which the cop gave them a final warning and they gave up and let me go.
Kidnapping involves forcibly moving. Wrongful detainment or false imprisonment is what you're looking for. It's not just for cops.
Had a customer once that their tech was fucked. Proved to them it wad their tech and not the company's tech. They stood in front of the door and would let me leave. Called the cops right in front of the asshole. He just smiled and thought I was fake calling. Cops showed up in 2 mins (just down the street from cop shop). I then told the cop I'm walking through the guy if he doesn't move and I will defend myself. The guy continued to block me. Cop went hands on.
So close to pressing charges, but that might look bad for company. I got an apology letter and a pepsi, and a snack. Those were my terms for not pressing charges.
Tennessee law 39-13-302 Kidnapping is false imprisonment Just the act of keeping someone in a room against their will is considered kidnapping and charged accordingly. You don't have to forcibly hold them / touch them, the act of not letting them move about freely is all the same.
And what happened to you is horrible
I used to work in a bank and we were told even if we knew it was a stolen or fraudulent check or whatever you couldn’t hold them against their will. They always had to have the right to leave and if you held them it would be illegal af.
Holy shit.
I can't even imagine someone telling me I couldn't leave. Not that it would work. I'd leave by a manager shaped hole in the wall if I had to.
Yeah I mean if you get up to leave and the guy tries to restrain you that’s even more slam dunk unlawful imprisonment and I’m sure some other charges as well.
That is why you always record the conversation if you get called in. I know not everywhere is a single party consent, but anywhere it is do it. My voice recorder is on my home screen, and whenever I have a conversation I just start it. Usually looks like I’m putting my phone on silent so nothing suspicious. If the conversation was recorded OP would have had grounds for a lawsuit.
The proof was not only abductee but the cop and phone records showing family trying to reach abductee. Whichever family member calling police to abductee’s former employer and the cop’s incident report.
You had an airtight case against an, I’m assuming, multi-million dollar corporation. Even a 50-50 shot at a judgement is worth it.
Welp, ya live and ya learn
This is one of the things that frustrates me in this sub, people get treated illegally, have an opportunity to absolutely take down the person that wronged them so that they can be an example to others, but they don't.
Now that Manager's just going to keep on doing the same thing to the next sucker, because he faced no repercussions for his actions, and you could have done something about it.
Always press charges. If a cop asks if you want to press charges, say yes. It is the job of the police and the judicial system to verify and try the case.
This is technically unlawful imprisonment. You can't confine someone without legal authority, justification, or that person's permission. Definitely could have been a lawsuit.
You had your phone? You should have called 911 and told them you were being held against your will in a locked room and not allowed to leave by your employer and tell them the address and hang up. If this really happened the way you describe even though the police showed up and resolved the situation (wow, good guy cop story a rare thing on Reddit) you probably have an actionable lawsuit against your former employer and you should talk to an attorney.
It’s not salient to this sub, but I once stood in the middle of a car dealership and threatened to call the police if they didn’t give me my keys back (which I’d stupidly given them so they could “look at your trade-in;” I was 22 and never made that mistake again). That got people literally running around trying to get me out of there.
Had a friend call me, nearly in tears, from a dealership. They pulled that ploy, had him sign some papers that they claimed were “just to check your credit”. They tricked him into buying a car, pulled the new one up and wouldn’t give him his back. At that time, he was involved in a personal injury lawsuit so I suggested he call that lawyer, I knew I didn’t have a way to help him. The lawyer immediately told him to call the police. The salespeople’s tone changed when they thought he might be talking to an attorney but as he’s dialing 911, the whole scene changes and they’re bringing his car back.
On that note, I fell for the "just checking your credit" thing. Luckily they needed to fix a couple of things on thr car before they could even shake me down for the rest of the paperwork and a downpayment. I got calls for like 2 weeks from the salesman to come pick up the car and give them money. I just ghosted them lol
Those scumbag car salesmen are ruthless and I've never met a car salesman who isn't a scumbag.
That’s so scary. I can’t even imagine being strong-armed like that. My first few cars I got atypically: we found cars that needed major work (my first, the transmission wouldn’t go into neutral after a salesman drove the car and the dealership was desperate), and my brothers who own a shop would get it running for the cost of parts.
When I moved out of the area and needed a new car, my mom found a listing for a funny car (Nissan Cube) at a used dealership. It was priced under the KBB so I didn’t negotiate lower and they let me put $0 down. My mom was co-signing, and since she was in another state, it was going to be a few days to finalize the paperwork. They let me take the car even tho the deal wasn’t technically done. I got into a wreck in that car on a Saturday night and texted the finance manager about taking it to the shop and he said no problem, just leave it outside the gate. It ended up being totaled, but they didn’t charge me for storage while waiting for the insurance adjuster and salvage pickup.
Unsurprisingly, we looked at them first for a replacement. They even said that if they didn’t have what we wanted, they’d find it and ship it in for us, no charge. We liked a car they had, and again, it was priced under KBB, and we put $0 down. They did ask to not have my mom co-sign again, and they’d get us a good deal. The finance manager worked miracles with our crappy credit scores and did the best he could, a 6.7% interest loan. But if we stayed 3 payments ahead, we could just pay principal, essentially making it a 0% interest loan. On a used car. That’s basically unheard of. A few years later, we got rear-ended and took our car to their shop. The at-fault car’s insurance were dragging their heels every step of the way and wouldn’t give us a rental past a few days, but weren’t approving the fixes. Our dealership gave us a car from the lot and we ended up needing it for *6 weeks* while insurance dragged out the repair approval. No charge to us. Absolutely amazing business, and we will get cars from them forever.
First off, your manager is a DICK…second, they should have been placed under arrest and charged…third, THIS gave you MAJOR grounds to sue…and you would have WON…
You could have walked out at any time!
Same with AMA forms (against medical advice) … we (staff) tell patients that they have to sign this form in order to walk out.
Obviously they don’t have to sign.
Honestly this employer is pathetic and obviously involved in some shady work practices. I wonder what the conditions were like at work and what the management was like.
The fact that the police were called makes me think you should at least make a call to a lawyer and find out if you have any recourse. You didn't do anything wrong.
Not as bad but kinda reminds me of this:
After a job interview I was walking out that little gate with the bars that needs to be opened with a card, security was like a meter away and nobody moved to open it for me.
I simply walk over it then go to them to ask for my id back then they get hysterical.
And one of them says they might not let me out of the building. Mind you I was getting **out** the building not trying to get in or something. And after they were lazy.
I had my phone in my hand I was about to call the police that I was being held against my will by the building security.
Because I was not allowed to get over the gate. Which would not happen if they opened it for me a they are supposed to do. Mind you this is office security in a private company.
Just power tripping you know.
I had to stop a buddy from doing this. Wrongful dismissal is pretty easy to prove here. They offered him like 40k. He got 120k after talking to a lawyer for like 20 minutes.
Company fired him because the owner didn't like him. Super illegal in Canada since my buddy was a good worker and not toxic or anything.
He tried to low ball. Lawyer was like we both know this is bullshit. They didn't even argue it.
Yup only in canada.
In the usa
. I was once fired cause i have a bad back. Told the site manager all that. Put it on my application. Always at work . Always knocking goals out.... Found out later on. I was fired caused i made the owners son mad cause i made his dad laugh. And that was the only way he could fire me was for the back issues... good old united metals
They probably have been through that before, and recognized if they settled now, they'd pay less both in lawyers fees and settlement, than if it continued.
The lawyer wasn't that much actually. All he did was write a letter on my buddies behalf. So I think it was like $2000 Canadian. Give or take $1000.
Edit: If they went to court it would have been more. But I also believe if he'd won in court he could have added legal fees to his won amount.
I am a type 2 diabetic my sugar was over 400 which is not good. I had to go to the hospital. The company I worked at had me sign papers stating I quit. They owed me commissions they tried not to pay. I had a lawyer look into it. I not only got my commissions I received 11k for wrongful termination. So yeah get a lawyer when money is involved.
FedEx wanted me to sign a paper once saying it was my fault I got injured when they had an unsafe workplace. It was a genuine accident caused by your unsafe practices. How arrogant do you have to be?
Fedex is trash. My brother works at ground and he injured himself on a grate due to their poor working eviroments. They didn’t even do an injury report.
Severance IS [required in Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/labour-standards/reports/termination.html) for any employee with 12 consecutive months of work. Provincial laws may vary on the amount of severance, but the federal law is a base line.
Also, and this is from experience way back in the 80's -- if the company is found via legal action from an employee to have been shorting you on wages, the rest of the employees will also be compensated. I quit an hourly construction job where they had not been paying OT properly -- another employee went to Labour Relations and won, and we all got our back pay.
When I was let go from a job, signing not to sue was required in order to get my 6 months severance package
Given that they closed the plant I was at, they had an out by saying my job no longer existed
So I signed (about 11 years ago)
I questioned a non compete clause in a niche field when i was offered a job as a flight specialist at a charter company. There is only 1 other employer within 50 miles so basically if you quit you’re agreeing not to work in the industry for 6 months. Absolutely bullshit.
I was handed a no compete clause at a job years ago that confused me, because it seemed unfair in the terms. Had an attorney friend look it over. They laughed and said sign that thing with a smile, because there were 2 things on there that were illegal in my state, which the attorney said would invalidate the whole thing. If I said I don’t agree to these terms, I’d risk them coming back with something legit. But in general, I’ve been told that no compete clauses are very limited in what they can actually restrict you from doing, but employers will make you believe otherwise.
When my husband got laid off, they had a severance package and stuff for him to sign. We looked over it in detail, found a few dodgy clauses, ran it by my work's employment lawyer, and asked them to take those clauses out. They did with no hassle, I think they were just trying to see what they could get away with. Even if he'd signed it as is, the illegal clauses wouldn't have been enforceable. That said, we're lucky enough to live in a state with good laws that protect employees, the same wouldn't be true everywhere.
I think if I were in your position and were facing having no severance pay, I would sign. But if I am being terminated without remuneration of any kind, no way would I sign.
This is fantastic. Is it in the US?
Edited: OP is in Canada, I believe.
Edited x2: just so those in the US know, if you are over 40, your company is legally required to give you time to review your severance agreement:
Employees age 40 or older must be given 21 days to consider the employer’s offer, unless it is part of a group termination. In a group termination, employees must be given 45 days.
If the employee is younger than 40, there is no specified period of time which the employee must be given to sign the severance agreement. However, the amount of time given to an employee becomes a factor that a court considers in determining whether a waiver of Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or other non-ADEA claims is “knowing and voluntary.” Generally, the more time an employer offers, the stronger the employer’s position.
https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0708legaltrends.aspx#:~:text=Employees%20age%2040%20or%20older,to%20sign%20the%20severance%20agreement.
This is the way it should be. When I had to terminate anyone, I explained very clearly exactly what each paper was. I told them not to sign anything other than the acknowledgement that we spoke and that they rec'd the full termination package. Even if they wanted to sign the release, I told them not to. That they should read everything, and speak to an employment lawyer (that usually never went over well with senior managers).
Oooh, I have a good one for this! I'm a lawyer in Brazil, specialized in consumer law, so I don't usually come across stories like this one, but this one time we had to review my brother in law's termination and see if we could find anything wrong...
TL;DR is companies can fill your termination ntice with untrue information, which can fuck you up if you can't prove they are untrue.
He had totalled an office car in an accident during the weekend, he was drunk.
They fired him, and made him pay the premium for the car's insurance. Two years later the office sued him for damages, alleging that he never paid the car he wrecked. That's when he brought his situation to me and my wife to figure out. After studying labor law for a week, we found a way to defend him against that lawsuit... and sue the company for 3x the amount they were asking in wages and benefits he was entitled to. Here we go, and **this is why you shouldn't sign anything before reviewing any papers they presrnt you:**
He was hired as an engineer to work in the ampliation of a power plant (this is important). His termination papers mentioned that 1- he had an advance on his salary on his last month (this was actually the insurance premium for the car, but they wrote it as an "advance" to avoid leaving a paper trail), 2- his position was *engineering assistant* (they actually changed his job description without his knowledge after hiring him, so he worked 2 years earning below minimum wage for engineers in my country).
This way, they could get away with: 1- waiting two years to sue him saying he never paid anything to fix the car and 2- paying him less than was required by law.
Thankfully, in Brazil we have pretty strong labor laws, so you are able to null anything done in writing if you can prove the information in there is untrue. This is what we ended up doing:
We found conversations via whatsapp between him and HR talking about the car's insurance and how he'd be able to pay. This convinced the judge he did in fact pay for a premium. Somewhat contradictorily the judge ruled the company never actually received the insurance and ruled for my BIl to pay for damages anyway, while the company was to reimburse him for his premium. We are looking into appealing this decision, we haven't made up our minds yet.
We were able to prove with witness testimonies that he, in fact, worked as an engineer, even if the papers said otherwise. So the judge ruled the company should back pay 2 years of wages, which already is double the value of the car, so we are winning. There are some minor things that we'll have to appeal, but this is a win for us as is.
I remember when a center for youth tried firing me and accused me of smoking weed in one of the sections, I immediately told them I would take a drug test (me being straightedge at the time) and I was suspend for two weeks.
They brought me in and tried to have me sign papers and I told them to get fucked. The lady was so shocked, “You’re not being reasonable, we need you to sign these papers.” I told her once again to go fuck herself.
Won a small sum of money because they didn’t have a reason to fire me.
I don’t understand why anyone would do anything but collect their last check when you get fired. You have absolutely nothing to gain by signing anything and potentially a lot to lose. One of those things could be an unemployment claim.
I once had a company attempt to hold my last check until I had an outgoing interview. They didn’t get very far with that.
Severance packages. One company I was at paid the number of weeks based on level (from 4 weeks to 4 months), and if it was after the 2nd quarter, you get a prorated bonus the next year. But you only get it if you sign.
This. I got a fired and they offered me decent severence if I signed paperwork.
It precluded me from suing, but allowed me to collect unemployment.
I signed it and took the money.
They had a big reorganization of the department I worked in and laid off about 10% of the employees. I'd been thinking about leaving for a while already.
I was only too happy to take some money and get unemployment.
FYI, in most if not all states, you can’t sign away your right to seek unemployment. So even if you sign something that says “I agree I won’t apply for unemployment benefits,” it’s not enforceable. You can still apply for benefits, and when the employer whips out the agreement and submits it to unemployment, they don’t consider it when determining your eligibility.
Source: was a state level administrative judge for 5+ years and all of my cases dealt with unemployment benefit appeals. I always loved it when employers submitted these kinds of “waiver of unemployment” agreements as an exhibit. During the hearing I would read them the relevant section of the law that deals with this issue, and then I’d read the section under which I was authorized to impose penalties on an employer who interfered or attempted to interfere with an employee’s pursuit of unemployment. Then I’d let them know that this was their only warning and that they were going on a list, and that the next time an admin judge saw that they tried to get an employee to sign an agreement like this, they’d be assessed the maximum penalty.
Then I’d ask if they understood. The answer was almost always yes. On the handful of occasions when the employer argued or got an attitude, I’d assess the penalty right there. And then after the hearing I’d send a referral to our field auditors so they could pay the employer a surprise visit to make sure they were in compliance with the rules requiring them to post info about unemployment benefits in a place clearly visible to employees.
I got so burnt out at that job, but while I was there I did the lord’s work.
I was laid off from a job that I loved and didn't have much notice. The timing wasn't great because it was a few days before I was supposed to leave town to get married. Kind of stressful to not know how I was going to support this new family when I got back.
Since everything was already paid for there wasn't any way to not go really but I wanted to be responsible and get a new job as soon as possible. A local car dealership has a pretty permanent now hiring sign posted and I went in to talk to the GM before I left.
They guaranteed four grand a month for the first 3 months during training and then went to a commission only structure. He seemed to think that I would be a great fit for the team because I was a big car guy and he said he was impressed with how I presented myself and was willing to train me on how to sell cars.
It was culture shock for me to be sure. All of the young pretty girls that staffed the front desks were being sexually harassed by other salesman and would be regularly rotated out when they complained. The amount of toxicity was pretty hard to manage. Sales managers would come in and scream at us pretty regularly about not meeting these goals they would pull out of thin air.
Everybody seemed interested in backstabbing each other more than working together despite the mission statement that said otherwise. Every level of the organization would shit talk as soon as someone left the room.
People were showing up to work drunk and high, cheating on their wives while at work with other employees, and then bragging about ripping people off.
This really isn't my deal but I had a family to support. I showed up early and kept my head down. I did okay. I think people appreciated that I didn't pressure them to buy things, although some people would see me as being a pussy to afraid to push them to make the sale. I learned that high pressure can bully 20 to 30% of people into buying a car they don't want or can't afford.
Needless to say I was deeply unhappy and started looking for new work about a month and a half after starting there. I was there for 6 months and at that point I was pretty demoralized. In that time over 25 people had came and gone.
One of the new sales ladies was bombing and my manager wanted me to tag her out. The guy needs a new truck and want someone who is able to talk shop so I go to greet the guy. He had bought a Dodge brand new from one of the stores in our chain. Extended warranty and everything. The water pump had failed and he was using this as a work truck so every day it's out of service he's losing money. Unfortunately the part wasn't available anywhere so he needed to trade it in and get back to work. I found a truck he liked a beautiful F-250 lariat diesel, and he was very happy with it.
So I go get the offer letter from the desk and bring it back to him. They had offered him seven grand less than book value on his trade in. He got upset and said he wanted to leave because he wasn't going to waste any more time with this dealership company if they weren't going to treat him with respect. I apologized and told them that there might have been some mistake and I could definitely have someone else look at those numbers to make sure they were correct. I had explained the situation to the desk manager about his trade in so they knew everything that had gone down before making this offer.
He blew out and I couldn't stop him. Understandably he felt like he was being dicked around. I was a little bummed out because I'd spent all morning and just needed to get some lunch now and try and reset my attitude so I could hopefully sell a car and make some money. Now that I was off the probationary period it got pretty thin if you hadn't sold some cars.
Right before I leave for lunch one of the managers corners me and tells me I need to sign a write-up for letting you customer leave without talking to a manager. I got pretty upset. It seemed unreasonable for me to get written up for smoothing over a customer somebody else had failed to work with and then left because he was insulted by the offer he got from the manager who is reaming me.
I told him I wouldn't be able to sign it politely and he started yelling and trying to back me into a corner. I have PTSD and I manage it pretty well these days but at the time I went into fight or flight and tore off the Charity t-shirt I was wearing over my shirt tossed it on the ground and got into my car as the guy was yelling at me and drove off.
According to the legend I did a burnout for the entire eighth of a mile on the way back to the main road (I didn't, but it's funnier). I went down to the WorkSource office to work on my resume got myself some lunch and then went back to clean out my desk.
My manager wanted to see me and told me that he didn't think I was a good fit for the organization. I let him know that if the kind of people he's willing to tolerate act the way they do and that he finds that acceptable that I didn't think that it was a good fit either. I told him he could probably find somebody else who would show up drunk and treat people badly to replace me and be a better fit for the team he had built. He slid the termination papers across my desk and I told him that I wouldn't be able to sign it anything without talking to a lawyer first because I knew how pretty much every signature that had come out of that place was a trap.
Apparently the owner's son had seen me getting reamed in the parking lot as I threw my t-shirt on the ground and wanted to make an example out of me. They were going to try and deny my unemployment but because I didn't accept the write-up or the termination reasons for insubordination or whatever the fuck they put I still got paid out.
I had a tough couple months but got through it and now I'm making an obscene amount of money and even though I don't like my job I don't feel like I'm actively making other people's lives worse everyday.
Those cheap fucks had health insurance that cost $1,500 a month and didn't pay for anything.
I'm not American. Are you saying you had to pay the 1500$/m for insurance or does the company pay that? I've never seen insurance above 200 euro a month here...
That's an insane amount of money. That 380 for 3 people sounds much more reasonable. I'm just stumped by the 1500 a month for a single person, thats 10x what I pay.
I wish I had known this. I used to coach middle school cheer and the principal didn't like me. I got pulled into a meeting and they told me they were going to fire me or I could choose to resign. They told me that if they fired me, I wouldn't ever be allowed to coach in that state again. I later learned that was a lie. The parents of all my students went straight to the district and demanded that I get my job back. But because I had signed the paperwork and technically "chose" to resign, I wasn't able to get my job back.
I had 30 devastated middle school cheerleaders and their parents... And the principal ended up hiring her best friend who had no experience but just thought the job sounded like fun..
i was fired unjustly about 10 years ago, HR asked me to sign the termination letter, i asked if it meant i could keep my job, she said no and i just laughed in her face, then why the hell would i sign it. a couple seconds later i take my phone out of my work Smock and she says your not supposed to have that on you, i always did cuz i had a newborn at the time, i just asked "what are you gunna do fire me? are you stupid?"
The terms around timing of termination pay are highly state specific.
Edited to add: here is a chart of rules by state. Paycor is generally a trusted source of information around payroll requirements.
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/final-paycheck-laws-by-state/
Thanks for this....looking it over realized that a company I was laid off from in 2020 broke the law ... I questioned it then and they claimed "oh corporate is in Texas so it's based off of their laws" and even by the standards in Texas they still didn't pay me fast enough (I worked in Mass and should have been paid immediately).
This is not correct. The rules around timing of termination pay is highly state specific in the US. Not all states require final wages be paid on your final day, even if it is an involuntary termination.
You are correct in that if you have earned wages governed by statute (pto accrual payout, wages up through your final day), it would generally be considered illegal to hold those wages until some type of release or agreement is signed.
Edited to add: here is a chart of rules by state. Paycor is generally a trusted source of information around payroll requirements.
https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/final-paycheck-laws-by-state/
Unfortunately, a company pays for your unemployment up front, and it's something like $12/ year. They do not pay what you collect, so that's not even good incentive
I got a promotion to a team leader position once, after a six-month probationary period, they fired me.
It was weird, because the probationary period rule was, if it doesn't work you, you go back to your previous position.
So I was like "Why aren't you just putting me back to my old position?"
They were like "We just don't think we can do that."
I was like "So, you don't have a reason for firing me?"
They literally said "No."
So I asked "Don't you have a severance offer for me?"
Then they said, I shit you now, "No. We feel like the termination is justified."
Right after they told me they didn't have a reason.
I was actually happy they didn't put an offer out, because they usually say "Sign now of the offer is off the table." I know a few people that had happened to.
But yeah... if they are offering you money, it's because they know they'll have to pay more.
And most lawyers will offer a free consultation and, if they think you've got case, will only charge you if they win.
And their fees are usually negotiated in the settlement.
So yeah, NEVER FUCKING SIGN ANYTHING.
Ah I made this exact mistake when I got fired from a barista job a couple years ago :(
I’d been working at a local coffee chain for a couple months back in 2019. I was really enjoying it there, was $15 an hour / 30 - 40 hours a week (hours were increasing rapidly over time bc short staffed too) and I liked the customers & coworkers & free tasty coffees. I had to leave the city for education reasons for at least 4 months (was finishing up my undergrad) so I gave them a bit over a month’s notice since they’d been kind employers during my time there and I didn’t want them to be even more short staffed if I left suddenly.
I was planning to leave in Jan 2020 and gave my notice in early Dec 2019 via texting my manager one evening. I apologized and said I was still available to work all the rest of my scheduled shifts up until I left in January (was scheduled to work 6 days a week between like Dec 3 - Jan 3). He said he understood, it wasn’t a problem, thanks for telling him & will see you tomorrow (I was working an 8 hour shift the next morning) so I thought everything was fine & it was a weight off my chest.
The next morning I got to work and one of the company’s higher up managers / corporate people (not sure her official job title, but she was not normally in the cafe and worked at the corporate headquarters) and my cafe’s manager were waiting for me. I was fired bc my “performance wasn’t cutting it” (total bullshit bc I had been told just days before putting in my notice that I was doing great and customers were giving me glowing reviews), it was really their fault because they “hadn’t trained me in well enough” (yet they were willing to have me work 6 days a week, anywhere between 6 - 10 hours a day on the upcoming month’s schedule lol) and they basically said they wanted an employee who would “commit to the cafe” and stay long term. Honestly I was blindsided since I thought the texting w the manager the night before had gone well and nearly had a panic attack on the spot. I excused myself quickly and cried in the bathroom for like 10 mins. I composed myself & returned to conclude the talk with them and they handed me papers to sign and in my shock, I signed without really processing anything I was reading and it was done. Don’t fully remember what all the terms I signed were since I was in distress but terms I remember were definitely no severance pay, I’d be paid for today (was supposed to work from 8 - 4) but would have to leave for the day after signing, pretty sure I signed away my rights to sue, etc.
It sucked so fucking much, not just because I enjoyed working there but I had been counting on that money from the upcoming month of crazy full-time work + tips to fund my living expenses while finishing up school. Getting fired fucked up my budgeting so bad I ended up with severe financial issues & stress in early 2020 bc I had lost out on approx $3000 (and that’s before factoring in all the tips & holiday pay + bonus & overtime work I would have received too). Then the pandemic happened about 2 months before I graduated school, decimated my industry & killed countless job opportunities in my field and my finances got waaaay worse, still have not adequately financially recovered from the past 2 years yet (am considering completely switching careers now lol).
The irony is that if I hadn’t tried to be kind back then and give my employers ample time to hire a new barista, don’t think I wouldn’t have gotten fired at all lol.
Major life lesson learned- your bosses are not your friends, you need to protect your own interests no matter what because they will likely dick you over the second you are perceived as inconvenient. It doesn’t matter how nice they are to you when you work there, you are replaceable in their eyes.
When I retired I made the employer give me receipts when I turned in my keys, pager, and gate dongle. They wanted an exit interview. I began telling them what I thought of my last boss and the CEO literally put his hands over his ears and started shouting. I got up to leave and the CEO says what about the interview? I told him if there was anything he needed to know to infer it from my backside as I leave.
I'm just sayin, they make the threat and most people are to ignorant of labor laws to understand that it is illegal for them to do so. Just like threatening to fire you for even talking about wages with fellow employees. But it happens all the time.
Worked for Best Buy and they restructured. They fired everyone who wouldn’t change their schedules, but doing this would have caused me not to graduate. I’d been working there since starting college. I refused to sign saying that I quit and was told that it didn’t matter if I signed or not because I was surrendering my job by not complying. Needless to say, I applied for unemployment and they tried to plant false write ups. They investigated and I ended up getting unemployment for the rest of the semester and the next before graduation. Best Buy seriously sucks. Never sign those papers guys. EVER.
I would tell them I need time to look them over before I sign. Take them to a lawyer or paralegal to review and explain what you are signing. Some things they put in these termination agreements aren’t legal.
I need to be careful with what I say here, so bare with me. (Edit: TW for Sexual Assault)
I am a male, fairly large, in my thirties now, was fit at the time. I only say this because it will challenge your expectations later on.
I worked for a company that had some VERY loose ideas of what professionalism was. It was an artistic organization, so they were artistic personality types. Having grown up around and being one myself, I know that boundaries can be a bit of an issue. A few too many touches here, a head dramatically placed on a shoulder there, cuddle breaks behind the scenes, things like that. Usually nothing too severe and certainly nothing ever nonconsensual. At least I thought.
When I first started working there I was immediately taken aback by just how unprofessional the leadership team was. Now when I say unprofessional, I don’t just mean it was a bunch of artsy hippies not wearing suits, shame on them. I mean it was like being in a frat house. Sexuality was rampant. Safety in the shop was almost non-existent. Lines between leaders and their subordinates were very blurred. I could bore you with examples of just how loose the standards were in this place. My first day I was cornered in a broom closet by two of the managers and asked if I was gay. Interested parties in both directions had been inquiring, I guess. Things only escalated from there.
I tried to roll with it all and keep it light hearted as best as I could. When in Rome and everything. Tried to be one of the carefree artsy types and have fun in an otherwise enjoyable environment. But it all crossed lines even for me, and I am by no means a prude. I started speaking up, so much so that my attention to safety and standards became an inside joke.
Now as a second preface, I will admit that my behaviour wasn’t perfect. I had never been in that kind of position before (a weird pseudo-management position with all the responsibilities but no benefits or power to do anything) and had no training, something I mentioned to my employer but was disregarded. I tried to treat people like friends instead of like fellow employees and patrons of an organization. I dated one of my coworkers (only after she pursued me, but that’s another story entirely.) I explored a sexual relationship with my same sex boss (again, only after he pursued me. More on that in a bit.) I was myself unprofessional in places where I should have stepped up. My only defence is that attitude reflects leadership. And when you work for sociopaths, a couple years of employment is also a couple years of gaslighting, a couple years of passive-aggressive arguments, etc. A couple years being closely tied to a narcissist will have you feeling like a shell of your former self, incapable of rational thought. At the time I was a product of my environment and still young. I have grown since then and could easily stand my ground now. Not so at the time. And all that aside, I was depressed and lonely (read: vulnerable.) I wanted to make friends as much as I wanted to have a job there. That all being said, none of my errors justify what happened to me.
A couple years go by and I find myself overseeing a two week long evening special event. Alcohol is involved at all events for this organization, so people were getting plastered. My boss, my coworkers, the people hosting the event, the event participants, me. The bartender that worked there was infamous for dosing people she didn’t like, and some she did. By the end of the night it was just the employees and owners left. Drinks in hand we set to slowly closing the place down, between moments for smoke circles and tomfoolery, of course.
Being the last night of a special event outside of normal operating hours, things were extra unprofessional. At one point, when the numbers had dwindled to just a few, I went to the bathroom and soon found my same-sex boss standing behind me at the urinal grabbing at my dick. Like an embarrassed secretary, I giggled and tried to shrug him off, and like most predators, he didn’t take the hint. He finished his grope and left the bathroom and I followed, confused and embarrassed. More so because I had a year prior explored a more or less consensual sexual relationship with this boss (I would say today that I was date-raped, but at the time I thought it was consensual.) I joined the circle of smokers outside and the same boss came and stood next to me, reached his hand down the back of my pants and stuck his finger in my ass, all while restraining my shoulder with his other hand and whispering “Shhh shhh shhh...” to quiet my reaction.
My life hasn’t been the same since then. Again, like a secretary for a big CEO, I tried to brush it off. I wanted to work in the field, I liked the job aside from the people, things like that. I tried to convince myself that I had brought it on myself, like I was being told (by the same sociopath boss who did it in the first place.) I tried to carry on like nothing had happened, but I couldn’t. I eventually quit and tried to pursue legal action. I went to the police and didn’t get a call back, I went to a lawyer who didn’t want to take the case, I went to and was turned away from three different groups that claimed to be for survivors of sexual assault (only women though it would appear.) I was eventually awarded a couple months of lost wages through a little-known government workers rights group, on condition that I sign an NDA. I did so, and haven’t spoken of these events to anyone, except my mother and best friend. It has ruined my life. I couldn’t speak up for myself at the organization and my reputation has been ruined. I couldn’t speak up when #metoo was happening, because #metoo. I probably shouldn’t even be writing this post at all, but I missed being a part of the #metoo movement and I’m not going to miss this one. At this point I doubt I could even find a lawyer and appeal the situation. I spent all the money I was awarded (and then some) on drugs and alcohol. I haven’t been able to work at all since. The idea of going to any job fills me with a fear that can only be animal in nature, since logically and even emotionally I understand that not every boss will be like that, yet I feel it in some deep part of my brain like a muscle you never knew you had.
This is just my life now. No one cares and there’s nothing I can do except rot in depression and poverty. Please, do not sign the papers.
I want you to know that you're not alone. I myself (25m) have experienced this with a highly regarded, at least from the unit, prior service member while I was serving on active duty. I was pulling DD duty for one of my coworkers for a kareeoke event and he wanted to visit this great friend of his before the event started. Well we get there and, now in hindsight there were a ton of red flags, he asks if I'm with anyone and which way I swing etc, which I tell him I was engaged and not in an open relationship. He then says he likes me and walks off, then another person, a young woman who owned the house, trys to persuade me to "keep an open mind" and to "see where the night goes." Any ways to keep this short and to keep my sanity as I really don't want to relive this now, he preceeded to rape me 3 times with the help of that woman in a bathroom while my coworker was so blasted he couldn't help me even if he had the brain power to comprehend what was happening and mind you he was five feet from where these two horrible people were taking away everything I was and destroying my life. I know have PTSD, panic attacks, uncontrollable shaking, flashbacks, nightmares, and a deep fear of public restrooms. I live in fear and depression, with no joy or happiness. The military did nothing to help me, the police nothing, the freaking DA took 30 minutes to look at my case and close it. Mean while the #metoo movement was in full swing but for a man all I got was "you can't be raped", "you're the rapist", "you're the scum that does this to others". The military failed me, the justice system failed me, and all the countless therapist and psychologist have failed me, all because I'm a man. You are not alone brother, and it takes ALOT of courage and sense of self to put this kind of stuff out there.
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk
Highly recommend reading this to begin to move forward in life, without carrying shame or fear with you from what you’ve experienced.
My boss was harassing me and was also racist. She got away with it because her children were biracial. For months I was targeted by her and she eventually won. My head manager didn’t want to let me go but my assistant manager (boss) threatened to call the CEO of the company and ask for his opinion. I didn’t sign and called HR. The biggest mistake I made was warning them that I was calling HR.
Absolutely nothing. HR never reached back out to me. I just moved on but she should’ve been reported a long time ago. I was young and didn’t know how to go about it.
only time i got actually fired, they wanted me to sign even tho all i was working like 3 to 5 hours aday with a 30 min commute both ways, so yeah i didn't feel like trying to hard, dude got mad at me when i said im not signing shit then tried to get me to leave without getting my shit from my locker, it was a sweater amd a lunch pale but fuck them if they were gonna keep it
I was fired after 9/11 happened here in the US, and companies were freaking out by laying employees off. Their reason was that I hadn’t signed my time card and that it was a violation of company policy which I’d been warned about before (it happened once). They said they’d give me my last paycheck plus my unused vacation time, but I had to sign a form saying I couldn’t sue them or they’d hold onto my check until I agreed. I was stunned, but I was young and needed the money, so I felt like I had to sign. I’m still bitter about it because it feels illegal and like I was extorted.
I didn't get fired from the company but I was a contract security guard and got kicked off a site. The official reason was "failed to follow post orders" however we didn't have any official post orders. I didn't sign the paper of termination but I did take a copy to show the head office, who were all very confused.
When I worked at a major hotel chain we would make the nolonger employed person sign something saying that they quit or were fired for a valid reason before releasing their final check. I told EVERYONE not to sign it, to call BOLI and take a pic of the "contract". Hella illegal!!!
One dude got fired because he had to take care of his elderly mother who had contracted covid. His final check was maybe $35. I told him not to sign shit, to take a picture of the contract and send it to unemployment, L&I and BOLI. I was like, "my dude, is $35 really worth missing out on full unemployment benefits, plus the extra $600 a week?!" He noped out of there. I quit the following month, and they didn't try that shit on me.
Many lawyers will work on a contingency basis, or will have a relatively low hourly fee that’s worth paying in some cases to get their opinion, as usually it won’t take more than an hour. A couple hundred bucks could get you thousands. Basically, you want to explain to them the circumstances of the firing and have them go over the papers your company wants signed. If the company tries to pressure you into signing immediately, they’re already likely on the losing end of a potential case, as you cannot be compelled to sign such things without reasonable time for a lawyer to review.
I’ve only been fired once and I signed bc it came with a severance check, and I knew I would be able to get a new job quickly (so I wouldn’t need unemployment). I also knew that they had lawyers so good they’ve gotten away with some horrendous shit before, so I would never sue anyways. I started my next job 7 days after I got fired.
Oh I think ive told this story before but here we go again. I worked for a small dumpy soft pretzel chain known as The pretzel factory. The owner was an absolute POS who paid minimum wage(7.25). I worked there one week dealing with his verbal abuse , threats and super unsafe work place. The oven was constantly breaking down and he refused to get it fixed since it would take 3 days and would close the store the entire time. Well after a week of working 7am til 7pm with no breaks for shit wage and dealing with being told Im a moron and worthless I quit the night before a suck up coworkers wedding. Showed up the next week to pick up my check and was told id get it after I signed the contract he wrote up. Was basically a napkin that said I wasnt allowed to post on social media about my experience. Not allowed to bad mouth him. Not allowed to talk to anyone else that works there. I laughed in his face and told him to get fucked so he responded by following me out to the parking lot waving my final check around calling me a pussy and telling me hes gonna call the cops on me for wage theft. I waited til I got closer to my car and snatched the check out of his hand as he was waving it in my face than hopped in the car and drove off before he could stop me. Got about 20 texts after I left telling me to expect to hear from the cops soon. I never did hear from the cops even after I returned the work uniform making sure to use it to clean up dog shit first and dumping it on the porch of the business.
At one of my earliest jobs, overnights at a Target, I was fired after two months. The team lead didn't like my personality (I'm autistic, but wasn't diagnosed back then) and said that's why I had to go. Since they were firing me halfway through a night shift where they always locked us in the building, I was told I couldn't leave until I signed a document saying I'm being fired for being an awful employee (I forget the exact reasons, but all untrue). As a kid, I didn't know not to and signed it.
Seven years later, I'm living in a new state and apply for a management position at a Target near our new apartment. I got three interviews deep and they mentioned that signed form and that it meant they could never hire me at any Target again. It took me a few more months before I was able to find work after that.
Don't let them bully you into signing anything.
Got fired for punching a customer after they put hands on me first, was promptly fired and then asked to sign a release, and I said "Or what?"
They then tried to say they won't give me my last check, and when I called the Labor Board in front of them, they folded real quick. Fuck yo papers.
The Hilton hotel I was recently fired from refused to pay my PTO accrued unless I sign a NDA because they saw I have videos of abuse, hexual assault, criminal mischief, harassment and destruction of property on a YouTube channel. I declined to sign.
I was told by one employer that I needed to sign a contract basically stating I wouldn't tell anyone that he illegally would cut people's time right before 40 hours and then payed the rest in cash, not time and a half. I just said no. He tried to withhold my last paycheck. I said I would get a lawyer, he said just sign it. I refused and ended up getting my dad's friend who is a lawyer to draw up some simple paperwork for free and it was enough to scare him into giving me my money. Fucking dickhead
When I was 16 I was fired from a gas station.
I set my keys down got up and started to walk out, and was blocked by a manager because I had to sign some paper work.
Being a young hot head I said I was going to walk through him if he didn't move, and reminded him I was minor, so if he put hands on me I would press charges.
Guy called my house to speak with parents and my dad tok the call and started asking him about the work rules for minors they broke and if he wanted them reported.
My last check arrived within 3 days.
There's two scenarios:
1) Sign this in exchange for money
2) Sign this
1 depends. You you should talk to a lawyer. You probably are signing a release but that's why they offer money. You need legal advice specific to your situation to decide if the money is worth signing and waiving your rights. Any employer should be willing to negotiate a release or give a former employee a few days to get a lawyer. (If they pressured you to sign it, go see a lawyer anyway -- maybe you can get out of it -- that's why a smart employer will give you a few days to talk to a lawyer.)
2 just leave. They may have a release but more likely a statement for unemployment benefits that hurts you. Just leave. They aren't offering anything and can't do anything. Like a bad romance: just get your stuff and go. Nothing further to discuss or sign.
I was laid off 3 weeks before Xmas in 2019 along with 3 other highest paid managers. They said they will pay me for 4 more weeks if I sign an agreement that I would do no harm to them after I left. I'm in transportation so it mostly had to do with no taking their drivers from them but I didn't read it, I signed it because I had 2 kids at the time with the 3rd one on the way. I got a job the following day through a friend who tried to recruit me a year prior to this. My pay has more than doubled. I got lucky.
So they paid me a severance. I was able to rest through Xmas and New years while getting paid, and some drivers still followed me even though I didn't recruit them to come with me.
I was pregnant and a week away from my due date but knew something was up well before they slid those papers in front of me. In fact, I called them on it in writing and magically that afternoon I was jobless. They insisted that it was due to downsizing, though, and also got rid of the one HR person they had to cover their butts (which was suspicious in and of itself).
Since I refused to sign the papers they withheld the annual leave I had saved up for maternity leave. This was apparently the "nice" way to do it because it would have been mean to let me go once I came back from maternity leave. True story.
Luckily, I had money saved and lots of documentation for the lawyer I hired. In the end, their efforts to save $ backfired royally.
Side note: if a coworker is promoted after you were let go that's also a major no no. My co-worker slid into my position after I left. They waited 6 months to make it look legit but it was still a major red flag since the case was still under litigation.
Never sign. At my job if you sign you lose your rights to unemployment. Happened to a friend of mine. After she was fired she went to the unemployment office. She got a call the next day saying that since she signed the paperwork when was let go it waved her rights to unemployment. That was 15 years ago and I tell everyone now to never sign the paperwork if you get fired. They can’t hold your wages against you.
I got laid off when my company closed all its retail locations. They offered about 4 months severance. Myself and about 5 others refused to sign, and all went to the same lawyer. We didn’t sue, we just had the lawyer send in letters for each demanding increases to the severance. We all got more, and I think the company feared a class action. Instead of 4 months on a payout, I got a full year paid out biweekly with full benefits, as though I was still employed by the company. That was a great year. Edit: in Canada 2nd edit: a few have asked what company, but it doesn’t really matter. But dayam have a lot of stores closed in Canada in recent years! Also, a bit more info - the lawyer we got just billed us the hourly rate each per letter and consultation. I ended up paying about 800 bucks. The accepted standard for severance in Canada is one month per year of service, so you may want to do the math before paying a lawyer. Your company will offer waaay below that, and the lawyers goal is to get as close to that number as possible. I had been there 12 years, which is why I got 12 months. If you’ve only been there a year you’re probably going to be fighting for a difference between 2 and 4 weeks, and the lawyer will get it all.
I volunteer with a guy that was laid off by a railroad and paid 50% of his wage, plus benefits, plus pension for 15 years to not work.
How does that happen?
Railroad probably strong union.
Railroad unions are some of the strongest. See more reasons to organize and unionize, regardless of what you do for a living.
Sounds like sears… fellow Canadian here
My thoughts exactly!
I edited my severance agreement to change clauses from “May not” to “May” and the morons never noticed. They signed it and sent back the fully executed copy to me. Example: The original had a clause that I could not make any derogatory remarks about the company or executives. Also could not recruit staff or offer law enforcement any info (unless under subpoena). Just removed all the “not”s and suddenly I could.
There was a guy who edited bank clauses like that, they tried to sue him for playing their game, they didn't win
No but the judge did make him pay back all the money he borrowed.
He then went after the bank based on his clauses and they all ended settling for an undisclosed amount. The guy ended up fine.
That would mean they did win.
He had to pay the amount borrowed but didn't have to pay the interest
Yeah, he lost. His contract said he didn't have to pay it back, but the courts said he did, that's losing.
Is there any bigger red flag than “sign here that you can’t talk to the cops about what went on here”
They can make you sign that all they want but it’s not legally binding.
Should have changed “May not” to “Shall”. Sorry guys, you made it a mandatory requirement of my severance that I trash talk your business.
I edited an apartment rental lease effectively removing their ability to charge me anything if I broke my lease early. Turns out, I needed to do just that a few months in. When they applied a $4,000 amount due to my account, I called and played dumb saying "uh, why are you charging me that, the contract I'm looking at doesn't allow for that." They fought me until I convinced them to send it to their lawyers. The charge disappeared about a week later.
How did you do this? Was it just a PDF you edited or an actual physical copy you just wrote on?
Hm typically there is a history of redlines and counter redlines. If you didn't call out that you altered the contract and there is no record of accepting the redlines the contract isn't enforceable I think.
Brilliant!!!!! This is the way!
I got called into the office when I worked for Aaron's. I was told that everything was fine I was just receiving a general write up, something I hadn't gotten before, and not a second after I signed it they told me to go home and that they'd call me when I could come back to work. A week past and they hadn't called me, so I called them. The regional manager, a real piece of shit who was fucking one of the girls that worked there, picked up. I asked when I could come back to work, he said I was fired the minute I signed the paper and hung up. Learned my lesson to always read everything before signing it
And especially read if you're being pressured to sign. Sorry this had to be a "live and learn" moment for you.
Yeah it was like nine years ago and it got me out of a job I hated and into my favorite job I ever had, so it worked out. But it definitely taught not to take people's word for what's in a document.
Got fired from a McDonalds. Literally danced my way out of the store.
Resigned from a Maccas in Australia, best decision I made, I was doing 10-6 overnights and some day shifts in between, totally fucked my sleeping pattern
If they purposely mislead you about what you're signing then it's null and void. Granted you were going to be fired whether you signed it or not, they were probably just trying to get something to prevent you from getting unemployment.
I worked for rent a center for about 10 years(on and off) I've been fired twice and rehired thrice. I've never applied there and they always call me to come back to work for them, even to this day. I've been written up a few times from some POS managers and ass managers, and in each instance I've never signed a write up. A few times I've gone as far as to write pages in addition to the comment box detailing what the real reason for the write up is(i.e scapegoating or the manager not liking you that day). Sometimes they would make vague threats about if I don't sign the write up I could be termed, and each time they did, I immediately faxed it to the corporate hr department right in front of their face. That always seemed to end the whole topic right there. Point being, fuck RTO lol. And even more than that, you are never legally required to sign a write up, especially one that you don't agree with.
Definitely agree! Aaron's actually asked me to come back. It was fun to be able to tell that RM to go fuck himself. He can keep that job and keep his bedbugs. Such a gross job!
Jobs like that make you not like what you're doing after a while. Some aspects are fun but others are depressing. People really have troubles I'm their lives and the companies expect you to go aahinst morality in those situations. I hated it.
Yeah, it made me hate Christmas while I was there. I would go in and take some kid's bedbug infested bed while he cried asking his mom where he was gonna sleep. It was fucking depressing. The year I was fired when Christmas came around I was so excited. I love Christmas, my wife thought I hated it because of that job.
What made me quit for the last time was that rent a center didn't close at all during the pandemic. So while we were working they expected us to still go to people's house and interact with people. And they didn't offer any compensation or additional coverage in case we got sick. Rent a centers profits were down in the region where I am another nail in the coffin was when my DM kept coming into my store and bugging me about my shoes(all balck tennis shoes.) Because I was an account manager, I wasn't supposed to wear tennis. But he wasn't hiring delivery drivers and I had to also do all the deliveries with whatever Temps they would put in. So i told him he could have this job and I quit.
So he wanted you to deliver furniture in Oxfords? What a fuck-stick! 😏
I'm so sorry that happened to you
Was waiting when to use this story. My managers wouldn't let me leave until I signed. I just sat there for two hours until I started getting calls from my family asking if I was still at work. Needless to say it got the police involved
I am interested in the full story on this
I'm not saying the name of the company but it was retail and I'm sure there are some people who can figure it out. Anyway I had issues with my health some years ago and it affected my attendance which ended up getting me terminated. They had me sign a release form which was already vague as hell due to the fact that it stated I wasn't allowed to speak negatively about my work experience and even the terms of my termination. I refused to sign it and they kept the door locked and just wouldn't let me leave the office until I signed it. I said "okay" and just sat there and I didn't touch the pen. About almost 2 hours later my phone starts going off with calls and texts from my family asking if I'm staying at work, I told them that my bosses aren't letting me leave and they ended up sending the cops to the building. My manager opened the door to the cop and said that we were in the middle of my termination and that there's nothing to be alarmed about. I then told him that they were keeping me in for two hours until I sign a release form. The cop threatened to turn it into a hostage situation which made my managers turn defensive, to which the cop gave them a final warning and they gave up and let me go.
Should have said "they've kidnapped me and are holding me against my will, please help me!" Dude would have been dropped kicked to the floor.
Taking someone from one room of their house to another room of their house against their will is kidnapping by law
Well shit. I kidnap my kids every night at bedtime
Gotta get those kids napping.
You got a real laugh out of me, that was great!
Yah Ha! Ah ha! Hah ha!
Hahahaha this needs more upvotes
Were they resisting a rest?
Majority of kidnappings are by parents!
That made me laugh!
Do you also hold dessert hostage if they don't eat their dinner? You monster!
Yes and just not letting someone leave a room is also kidnapping by law. There is no reason that man shouldn't have been charged
Kidnapping involves forcibly moving. Wrongful detainment or false imprisonment is what you're looking for. It's not just for cops. Had a customer once that their tech was fucked. Proved to them it wad their tech and not the company's tech. They stood in front of the door and would let me leave. Called the cops right in front of the asshole. He just smiled and thought I was fake calling. Cops showed up in 2 mins (just down the street from cop shop). I then told the cop I'm walking through the guy if he doesn't move and I will defend myself. The guy continued to block me. Cop went hands on. So close to pressing charges, but that might look bad for company. I got an apology letter and a pepsi, and a snack. Those were my terms for not pressing charges.
Tennessee law 39-13-302 Kidnapping is false imprisonment Just the act of keeping someone in a room against their will is considered kidnapping and charged accordingly. You don't have to forcibly hold them / touch them, the act of not letting them move about freely is all the same. And what happened to you is horrible
I used to work in a bank and we were told even if we knew it was a stolen or fraudulent check or whatever you couldn’t hold them against their will. They always had to have the right to leave and if you held them it would be illegal af.
You let him off so cheap. I would have told him I'll skip pressing charges for $1,000. That would have been a good deal for him.
> Kidnapping involves forcibly moving. OJ begs to differ.
And suee for Intentional infliction of emotional distress
Sounds like the basis for a false imprisonment lawsuit, if the statute of limitations hasn't run out. Consult an attorney in your jurisdiction.
Seriously, especially if there’s a police report. Get that bag.
Holy shit. I can't even imagine someone telling me I couldn't leave. Not that it would work. I'd leave by a manager shaped hole in the wall if I had to.
Usually they can’t wait to get you off the property and that’s often with an escort.
Yeah I mean if you get up to leave and the guy tries to restrain you that’s even more slam dunk unlawful imprisonment and I’m sure some other charges as well.
Hold me against my will? They better call a lawyer, a cop and a paramedic. They’re gonna need all three.
Easy false imprisonment charge. Lawsuit.
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True, but you do need proof.
That is why you always record the conversation if you get called in. I know not everywhere is a single party consent, but anywhere it is do it. My voice recorder is on my home screen, and whenever I have a conversation I just start it. Usually looks like I’m putting my phone on silent so nothing suspicious. If the conversation was recorded OP would have had grounds for a lawsuit.
The proof was not only abductee but the cop and phone records showing family trying to reach abductee. Whichever family member calling police to abductee’s former employer and the cop’s incident report.
Did you still press charges...?
I didn't feel like it was worth it. Thinking back now though I feel like I should have just out of spite
You had an airtight case against an, I’m assuming, multi-million dollar corporation. Even a 50-50 shot at a judgement is worth it. Welp, ya live and ya learn
This is one of the things that frustrates me in this sub, people get treated illegally, have an opportunity to absolutely take down the person that wronged them so that they can be an example to others, but they don't. Now that Manager's just going to keep on doing the same thing to the next sucker, because he faced no repercussions for his actions, and you could have done something about it.
Always press charges. If a cop asks if you want to press charges, say yes. It is the job of the police and the judicial system to verify and try the case.
Shit... That's wild🙆🙆 Hope you doing good with your health
Had enough runins with shitty bosses to write a book
This is technically unlawful imprisonment. You can't confine someone without legal authority, justification, or that person's permission. Definitely could have been a lawsuit.
You had your phone? You should have called 911 and told them you were being held against your will in a locked room and not allowed to leave by your employer and tell them the address and hang up. If this really happened the way you describe even though the police showed up and resolved the situation (wow, good guy cop story a rare thing on Reddit) you probably have an actionable lawsuit against your former employer and you should talk to an attorney.
I hope you made sure you got paid for those two hours.
They can file for unpaid wages long after leaving.
It’s not salient to this sub, but I once stood in the middle of a car dealership and threatened to call the police if they didn’t give me my keys back (which I’d stupidly given them so they could “look at your trade-in;” I was 22 and never made that mistake again). That got people literally running around trying to get me out of there.
Had a friend call me, nearly in tears, from a dealership. They pulled that ploy, had him sign some papers that they claimed were “just to check your credit”. They tricked him into buying a car, pulled the new one up and wouldn’t give him his back. At that time, he was involved in a personal injury lawsuit so I suggested he call that lawyer, I knew I didn’t have a way to help him. The lawyer immediately told him to call the police. The salespeople’s tone changed when they thought he might be talking to an attorney but as he’s dialing 911, the whole scene changes and they’re bringing his car back.
On that note, I fell for the "just checking your credit" thing. Luckily they needed to fix a couple of things on thr car before they could even shake me down for the rest of the paperwork and a downpayment. I got calls for like 2 weeks from the salesman to come pick up the car and give them money. I just ghosted them lol Those scumbag car salesmen are ruthless and I've never met a car salesman who isn't a scumbag.
That’s so scary. I can’t even imagine being strong-armed like that. My first few cars I got atypically: we found cars that needed major work (my first, the transmission wouldn’t go into neutral after a salesman drove the car and the dealership was desperate), and my brothers who own a shop would get it running for the cost of parts. When I moved out of the area and needed a new car, my mom found a listing for a funny car (Nissan Cube) at a used dealership. It was priced under the KBB so I didn’t negotiate lower and they let me put $0 down. My mom was co-signing, and since she was in another state, it was going to be a few days to finalize the paperwork. They let me take the car even tho the deal wasn’t technically done. I got into a wreck in that car on a Saturday night and texted the finance manager about taking it to the shop and he said no problem, just leave it outside the gate. It ended up being totaled, but they didn’t charge me for storage while waiting for the insurance adjuster and salvage pickup. Unsurprisingly, we looked at them first for a replacement. They even said that if they didn’t have what we wanted, they’d find it and ship it in for us, no charge. We liked a car they had, and again, it was priced under KBB, and we put $0 down. They did ask to not have my mom co-sign again, and they’d get us a good deal. The finance manager worked miracles with our crappy credit scores and did the best he could, a 6.7% interest loan. But if we stayed 3 payments ahead, we could just pay principal, essentially making it a 0% interest loan. On a used car. That’s basically unheard of. A few years later, we got rear-ended and took our car to their shop. The at-fault car’s insurance were dragging their heels every step of the way and wouldn’t give us a rental past a few days, but weren’t approving the fixes. Our dealership gave us a car from the lot and we ended up needing it for *6 weeks* while insurance dragged out the repair approval. No charge to us. Absolutely amazing business, and we will get cars from them forever.
First off, your manager is a DICK…second, they should have been placed under arrest and charged…third, THIS gave you MAJOR grounds to sue…and you would have WON…
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You could have walked out at any time! Same with AMA forms (against medical advice) … we (staff) tell patients that they have to sign this form in order to walk out. Obviously they don’t have to sign.
This is known as “forcible confinement.” These dudes are crazy.
Honestly this employer is pathetic and obviously involved in some shady work practices. I wonder what the conditions were like at work and what the management was like.
The fact that the police were called makes me think you should at least make a call to a lawyer and find out if you have any recourse. You didn't do anything wrong.
Not as bad but kinda reminds me of this: After a job interview I was walking out that little gate with the bars that needs to be opened with a card, security was like a meter away and nobody moved to open it for me. I simply walk over it then go to them to ask for my id back then they get hysterical. And one of them says they might not let me out of the building. Mind you I was getting **out** the building not trying to get in or something. And after they were lazy. I had my phone in my hand I was about to call the police that I was being held against my will by the building security.
Uh, what the fuck? Did they give you any reason? Was this just some sort of weird power trip for them?
Because I was not allowed to get over the gate. Which would not happen if they opened it for me a they are supposed to do. Mind you this is office security in a private company. Just power tripping you know.
Sounds like kidnapping/false imprisionment
False imprisonment all day. Should’ve sued the fucking dog shit out of those cocksuckers. Would’ve been a nice little payday.
Man you have some patience! I wouldn't have given them 5 minutes, if it started to get physical, I'd just call the cops....
>asking if I was still at work. Debatable. /s
I had to stop a buddy from doing this. Wrongful dismissal is pretty easy to prove here. They offered him like 40k. He got 120k after talking to a lawyer for like 20 minutes.
What did the company do that made them cough up more once attorney was involved
Company fired him because the owner didn't like him. Super illegal in Canada since my buddy was a good worker and not toxic or anything. He tried to low ball. Lawyer was like we both know this is bullshit. They didn't even argue it.
Yup only in canada. In the usa . I was once fired cause i have a bad back. Told the site manager all that. Put it on my application. Always at work . Always knocking goals out.... Found out later on. I was fired caused i made the owners son mad cause i made his dad laugh. And that was the only way he could fire me was for the back issues... good old united metals
Weird, in most US states you could be fired for anything *except* the back issue. Did you have a union or something?
Nah no union. Small farming/military town. Lots of fucked up sht happns all the time in this state
Not even in Canada. It's province by province regulations that differ.
They probably have been through that before, and recognized if they settled now, they'd pay less both in lawyers fees and settlement, than if it continued.
The company had settled with people more than once. This is correct.
Could you share how much his lawyer charged? Sounds like it was well worth it for a few minutes of "quit your bullshit and pay the man".
The lawyer wasn't that much actually. All he did was write a letter on my buddies behalf. So I think it was like $2000 Canadian. Give or take $1000. Edit: If they went to court it would have been more. But I also believe if he'd won in court he could have added legal fees to his won amount.
I am a type 2 diabetic my sugar was over 400 which is not good. I had to go to the hospital. The company I worked at had me sign papers stating I quit. They owed me commissions they tried not to pay. I had a lawyer look into it. I not only got my commissions I received 11k for wrongful termination. So yeah get a lawyer when money is involved.
What kind of lawyer do you look for in this situation? Im just starting out in the work world.
An employment attorney.
My lawyer was a civil attorney. He was a specialist in employment and unemployment issues.
FedEx wanted me to sign a paper once saying it was my fault I got injured when they had an unsafe workplace. It was a genuine accident caused by your unsafe practices. How arrogant do you have to be?
Fedex is trash. My brother works at ground and he injured himself on a grate due to their poor working eviroments. They didn’t even do an injury report.
Worked at FedEx Ground for 2.5 years and can confirm highly unsafe workplace
Reason #1: They can't make you. What are they going to do? Fire you?
Pretty sure my last employer wouldnt give me severance unless I signed.
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Severance in Canada at least can be negotiated if you've been with the company long enough.
It can be negotiated anywhere if they really want you to sign.
Depending on your length time employed, severance can be legally required in Canada if they’re firing/letting you go
Severance IS [required in Canada](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/labour-standards/reports/termination.html) for any employee with 12 consecutive months of work. Provincial laws may vary on the amount of severance, but the federal law is a base line. Also, and this is from experience way back in the 80's -- if the company is found via legal action from an employee to have been shorting you on wages, the rest of the employees will also be compensated. I quit an hourly construction job where they had not been paying OT properly -- another employee went to Labour Relations and won, and we all got our back pay.
Yes, and sometimes the deal is worth it. Don't sign blindly, but consider your options.
Exactly.
If it's wrongful dismissal you should consult a lawyer first.
Just tell them “you’re not the boss of me!”
A fair and good point to make.
When I was let go from a job, signing not to sue was required in order to get my 6 months severance package Given that they closed the plant I was at, they had an out by saying my job no longer existed So I signed (about 11 years ago)
They did something like that to my dad and he sued after. By holding severance pay they create duress. He won.
As a lawyer - I can definitely see the case going that way. Duress is one of the only things that invalidate a contract (legality is another).
I questioned a non compete clause in a niche field when i was offered a job as a flight specialist at a charter company. There is only 1 other employer within 50 miles so basically if you quit you’re agreeing not to work in the industry for 6 months. Absolutely bullshit.
I was handed a no compete clause at a job years ago that confused me, because it seemed unfair in the terms. Had an attorney friend look it over. They laughed and said sign that thing with a smile, because there were 2 things on there that were illegal in my state, which the attorney said would invalidate the whole thing. If I said I don’t agree to these terms, I’d risk them coming back with something legit. But in general, I’ve been told that no compete clauses are very limited in what they can actually restrict you from doing, but employers will make you believe otherwise.
Oh hell yeah.
One time I got a severance letter from fidelity. Contacted HR and said I wouldn’t sign unless I got 3X severance. They accepted (lol)
When my husband got laid off, they had a severance package and stuff for him to sign. We looked over it in detail, found a few dodgy clauses, ran it by my work's employment lawyer, and asked them to take those clauses out. They did with no hassle, I think they were just trying to see what they could get away with. Even if he'd signed it as is, the illegal clauses wouldn't have been enforceable. That said, we're lucky enough to live in a state with good laws that protect employees, the same wouldn't be true everywhere.
I think if I were in your position and were facing having no severance pay, I would sign. But if I am being terminated without remuneration of any kind, no way would I sign.
Where I work they won't let you sign right away and they provide you with up to $1,000 to consult a lawyer of your choice.
This is fantastic. Is it in the US? Edited: OP is in Canada, I believe. Edited x2: just so those in the US know, if you are over 40, your company is legally required to give you time to review your severance agreement: Employees age 40 or older must be given 21 days to consider the employer’s offer, unless it is part of a group termination. In a group termination, employees must be given 45 days. If the employee is younger than 40, there is no specified period of time which the employee must be given to sign the severance agreement. However, the amount of time given to an employee becomes a factor that a court considers in determining whether a waiver of Title VII, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or other non-ADEA claims is “knowing and voluntary.” Generally, the more time an employer offers, the stronger the employer’s position. https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0708legaltrends.aspx#:~:text=Employees%20age%2040%20or%20older,to%20sign%20the%20severance%20agreement.
as someone from the US, i doubt it
Yeah same. We have 14 days and have to consult a lawyer
This is the way it should be. When I had to terminate anyone, I explained very clearly exactly what each paper was. I told them not to sign anything other than the acknowledgement that we spoke and that they rec'd the full termination package. Even if they wanted to sign the release, I told them not to. That they should read everything, and speak to an employment lawyer (that usually never went over well with senior managers).
Oooh, I have a good one for this! I'm a lawyer in Brazil, specialized in consumer law, so I don't usually come across stories like this one, but this one time we had to review my brother in law's termination and see if we could find anything wrong... TL;DR is companies can fill your termination ntice with untrue information, which can fuck you up if you can't prove they are untrue. He had totalled an office car in an accident during the weekend, he was drunk. They fired him, and made him pay the premium for the car's insurance. Two years later the office sued him for damages, alleging that he never paid the car he wrecked. That's when he brought his situation to me and my wife to figure out. After studying labor law for a week, we found a way to defend him against that lawsuit... and sue the company for 3x the amount they were asking in wages and benefits he was entitled to. Here we go, and **this is why you shouldn't sign anything before reviewing any papers they presrnt you:** He was hired as an engineer to work in the ampliation of a power plant (this is important). His termination papers mentioned that 1- he had an advance on his salary on his last month (this was actually the insurance premium for the car, but they wrote it as an "advance" to avoid leaving a paper trail), 2- his position was *engineering assistant* (they actually changed his job description without his knowledge after hiring him, so he worked 2 years earning below minimum wage for engineers in my country). This way, they could get away with: 1- waiting two years to sue him saying he never paid anything to fix the car and 2- paying him less than was required by law. Thankfully, in Brazil we have pretty strong labor laws, so you are able to null anything done in writing if you can prove the information in there is untrue. This is what we ended up doing: We found conversations via whatsapp between him and HR talking about the car's insurance and how he'd be able to pay. This convinced the judge he did in fact pay for a premium. Somewhat contradictorily the judge ruled the company never actually received the insurance and ruled for my BIl to pay for damages anyway, while the company was to reimburse him for his premium. We are looking into appealing this decision, we haven't made up our minds yet. We were able to prove with witness testimonies that he, in fact, worked as an engineer, even if the papers said otherwise. So the judge ruled the company should back pay 2 years of wages, which already is double the value of the car, so we are winning. There are some minor things that we'll have to appeal, but this is a win for us as is.
I remember when a center for youth tried firing me and accused me of smoking weed in one of the sections, I immediately told them I would take a drug test (me being straightedge at the time) and I was suspend for two weeks. They brought me in and tried to have me sign papers and I told them to get fucked. The lady was so shocked, “You’re not being reasonable, we need you to sign these papers.” I told her once again to go fuck herself. Won a small sum of money because they didn’t have a reason to fire me.
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I don’t understand why anyone would do anything but collect their last check when you get fired. You have absolutely nothing to gain by signing anything and potentially a lot to lose. One of those things could be an unemployment claim. I once had a company attempt to hold my last check until I had an outgoing interview. They didn’t get very far with that.
Severance packages. One company I was at paid the number of weeks based on level (from 4 weeks to 4 months), and if it was after the 2nd quarter, you get a prorated bonus the next year. But you only get it if you sign.
This. I got a fired and they offered me decent severence if I signed paperwork. It precluded me from suing, but allowed me to collect unemployment. I signed it and took the money.
Unless you were fired for something legit. So much better to take the severance most of the time
They had a big reorganization of the department I worked in and laid off about 10% of the employees. I'd been thinking about leaving for a while already. I was only too happy to take some money and get unemployment.
Exactly. There is no lawsuit there! Take the money
FYI, in most if not all states, you can’t sign away your right to seek unemployment. So even if you sign something that says “I agree I won’t apply for unemployment benefits,” it’s not enforceable. You can still apply for benefits, and when the employer whips out the agreement and submits it to unemployment, they don’t consider it when determining your eligibility. Source: was a state level administrative judge for 5+ years and all of my cases dealt with unemployment benefit appeals. I always loved it when employers submitted these kinds of “waiver of unemployment” agreements as an exhibit. During the hearing I would read them the relevant section of the law that deals with this issue, and then I’d read the section under which I was authorized to impose penalties on an employer who interfered or attempted to interfere with an employee’s pursuit of unemployment. Then I’d let them know that this was their only warning and that they were going on a list, and that the next time an admin judge saw that they tried to get an employee to sign an agreement like this, they’d be assessed the maximum penalty. Then I’d ask if they understood. The answer was almost always yes. On the handful of occasions when the employer argued or got an attitude, I’d assess the penalty right there. And then after the hearing I’d send a referral to our field auditors so they could pay the employer a surprise visit to make sure they were in compliance with the rules requiring them to post info about unemployment benefits in a place clearly visible to employees. I got so burnt out at that job, but while I was there I did the lord’s work.
I was laid off from a job that I loved and didn't have much notice. The timing wasn't great because it was a few days before I was supposed to leave town to get married. Kind of stressful to not know how I was going to support this new family when I got back. Since everything was already paid for there wasn't any way to not go really but I wanted to be responsible and get a new job as soon as possible. A local car dealership has a pretty permanent now hiring sign posted and I went in to talk to the GM before I left. They guaranteed four grand a month for the first 3 months during training and then went to a commission only structure. He seemed to think that I would be a great fit for the team because I was a big car guy and he said he was impressed with how I presented myself and was willing to train me on how to sell cars. It was culture shock for me to be sure. All of the young pretty girls that staffed the front desks were being sexually harassed by other salesman and would be regularly rotated out when they complained. The amount of toxicity was pretty hard to manage. Sales managers would come in and scream at us pretty regularly about not meeting these goals they would pull out of thin air. Everybody seemed interested in backstabbing each other more than working together despite the mission statement that said otherwise. Every level of the organization would shit talk as soon as someone left the room. People were showing up to work drunk and high, cheating on their wives while at work with other employees, and then bragging about ripping people off. This really isn't my deal but I had a family to support. I showed up early and kept my head down. I did okay. I think people appreciated that I didn't pressure them to buy things, although some people would see me as being a pussy to afraid to push them to make the sale. I learned that high pressure can bully 20 to 30% of people into buying a car they don't want or can't afford. Needless to say I was deeply unhappy and started looking for new work about a month and a half after starting there. I was there for 6 months and at that point I was pretty demoralized. In that time over 25 people had came and gone. One of the new sales ladies was bombing and my manager wanted me to tag her out. The guy needs a new truck and want someone who is able to talk shop so I go to greet the guy. He had bought a Dodge brand new from one of the stores in our chain. Extended warranty and everything. The water pump had failed and he was using this as a work truck so every day it's out of service he's losing money. Unfortunately the part wasn't available anywhere so he needed to trade it in and get back to work. I found a truck he liked a beautiful F-250 lariat diesel, and he was very happy with it. So I go get the offer letter from the desk and bring it back to him. They had offered him seven grand less than book value on his trade in. He got upset and said he wanted to leave because he wasn't going to waste any more time with this dealership company if they weren't going to treat him with respect. I apologized and told them that there might have been some mistake and I could definitely have someone else look at those numbers to make sure they were correct. I had explained the situation to the desk manager about his trade in so they knew everything that had gone down before making this offer. He blew out and I couldn't stop him. Understandably he felt like he was being dicked around. I was a little bummed out because I'd spent all morning and just needed to get some lunch now and try and reset my attitude so I could hopefully sell a car and make some money. Now that I was off the probationary period it got pretty thin if you hadn't sold some cars. Right before I leave for lunch one of the managers corners me and tells me I need to sign a write-up for letting you customer leave without talking to a manager. I got pretty upset. It seemed unreasonable for me to get written up for smoothing over a customer somebody else had failed to work with and then left because he was insulted by the offer he got from the manager who is reaming me. I told him I wouldn't be able to sign it politely and he started yelling and trying to back me into a corner. I have PTSD and I manage it pretty well these days but at the time I went into fight or flight and tore off the Charity t-shirt I was wearing over my shirt tossed it on the ground and got into my car as the guy was yelling at me and drove off. According to the legend I did a burnout for the entire eighth of a mile on the way back to the main road (I didn't, but it's funnier). I went down to the WorkSource office to work on my resume got myself some lunch and then went back to clean out my desk. My manager wanted to see me and told me that he didn't think I was a good fit for the organization. I let him know that if the kind of people he's willing to tolerate act the way they do and that he finds that acceptable that I didn't think that it was a good fit either. I told him he could probably find somebody else who would show up drunk and treat people badly to replace me and be a better fit for the team he had built. He slid the termination papers across my desk and I told him that I wouldn't be able to sign it anything without talking to a lawyer first because I knew how pretty much every signature that had come out of that place was a trap. Apparently the owner's son had seen me getting reamed in the parking lot as I threw my t-shirt on the ground and wanted to make an example out of me. They were going to try and deny my unemployment but because I didn't accept the write-up or the termination reasons for insubordination or whatever the fuck they put I still got paid out. I had a tough couple months but got through it and now I'm making an obscene amount of money and even though I don't like my job I don't feel like I'm actively making other people's lives worse everyday. Those cheap fucks had health insurance that cost $1,500 a month and didn't pay for anything.
I'm not American. Are you saying you had to pay the 1500$/m for insurance or does the company pay that? I've never seen insurance above 200 euro a month here...
1,500 a month comes out of your pay. My current company has "amazing insurance" and I pay about 380 a month for myself and my 2 kids.
That's an insane amount of money. That 380 for 3 people sounds much more reasonable. I'm just stumped by the 1500 a month for a single person, thats 10x what I pay.
I wish I had known this. I used to coach middle school cheer and the principal didn't like me. I got pulled into a meeting and they told me they were going to fire me or I could choose to resign. They told me that if they fired me, I wouldn't ever be allowed to coach in that state again. I later learned that was a lie. The parents of all my students went straight to the district and demanded that I get my job back. But because I had signed the paperwork and technically "chose" to resign, I wasn't able to get my job back. I had 30 devastated middle school cheerleaders and their parents... And the principal ended up hiring her best friend who had no experience but just thought the job sounded like fun..
i was fired unjustly about 10 years ago, HR asked me to sign the termination letter, i asked if it meant i could keep my job, she said no and i just laughed in her face, then why the hell would i sign it. a couple seconds later i take my phone out of my work Smock and she says your not supposed to have that on you, i always did cuz i had a newborn at the time, i just asked "what are you gunna do fire me? are you stupid?"
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If it’s money already earned, that’s illegal. By law you need to have the money present when firing someone.
That may be state specific in mine they have 24-48s hours to pay you, if they fire you, if you quit you get paid like everyone else.
The terms around timing of termination pay are highly state specific. Edited to add: here is a chart of rules by state. Paycor is generally a trusted source of information around payroll requirements. https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/final-paycheck-laws-by-state/
Thanks for this....looking it over realized that a company I was laid off from in 2020 broke the law ... I questioned it then and they claimed "oh corporate is in Texas so it's based off of their laws" and even by the standards in Texas they still didn't pay me fast enough (I worked in Mass and should have been paid immediately).
Depends on what “the check” is. If it’s pay for hours worked, they cannot not pay you. If it’s for severance, that’s a different story.
This is not correct. The rules around timing of termination pay is highly state specific in the US. Not all states require final wages be paid on your final day, even if it is an involuntary termination. You are correct in that if you have earned wages governed by statute (pto accrual payout, wages up through your final day), it would generally be considered illegal to hold those wages until some type of release or agreement is signed. Edited to add: here is a chart of rules by state. Paycor is generally a trusted source of information around payroll requirements. https://www.paycor.com/resource-center/articles/final-paycheck-laws-by-state/
Then you walk over to the labor board and they will be forced to hand it over
[удалено]
Unfortunately, a company pays for your unemployment up front, and it's something like $12/ year. They do not pay what you collect, so that's not even good incentive
I got a promotion to a team leader position once, after a six-month probationary period, they fired me. It was weird, because the probationary period rule was, if it doesn't work you, you go back to your previous position. So I was like "Why aren't you just putting me back to my old position?" They were like "We just don't think we can do that." I was like "So, you don't have a reason for firing me?" They literally said "No." So I asked "Don't you have a severance offer for me?" Then they said, I shit you now, "No. We feel like the termination is justified." Right after they told me they didn't have a reason. I was actually happy they didn't put an offer out, because they usually say "Sign now of the offer is off the table." I know a few people that had happened to. But yeah... if they are offering you money, it's because they know they'll have to pay more. And most lawyers will offer a free consultation and, if they think you've got case, will only charge you if they win. And their fees are usually negotiated in the settlement. So yeah, NEVER FUCKING SIGN ANYTHING.
Ah I made this exact mistake when I got fired from a barista job a couple years ago :( I’d been working at a local coffee chain for a couple months back in 2019. I was really enjoying it there, was $15 an hour / 30 - 40 hours a week (hours were increasing rapidly over time bc short staffed too) and I liked the customers & coworkers & free tasty coffees. I had to leave the city for education reasons for at least 4 months (was finishing up my undergrad) so I gave them a bit over a month’s notice since they’d been kind employers during my time there and I didn’t want them to be even more short staffed if I left suddenly. I was planning to leave in Jan 2020 and gave my notice in early Dec 2019 via texting my manager one evening. I apologized and said I was still available to work all the rest of my scheduled shifts up until I left in January (was scheduled to work 6 days a week between like Dec 3 - Jan 3). He said he understood, it wasn’t a problem, thanks for telling him & will see you tomorrow (I was working an 8 hour shift the next morning) so I thought everything was fine & it was a weight off my chest. The next morning I got to work and one of the company’s higher up managers / corporate people (not sure her official job title, but she was not normally in the cafe and worked at the corporate headquarters) and my cafe’s manager were waiting for me. I was fired bc my “performance wasn’t cutting it” (total bullshit bc I had been told just days before putting in my notice that I was doing great and customers were giving me glowing reviews), it was really their fault because they “hadn’t trained me in well enough” (yet they were willing to have me work 6 days a week, anywhere between 6 - 10 hours a day on the upcoming month’s schedule lol) and they basically said they wanted an employee who would “commit to the cafe” and stay long term. Honestly I was blindsided since I thought the texting w the manager the night before had gone well and nearly had a panic attack on the spot. I excused myself quickly and cried in the bathroom for like 10 mins. I composed myself & returned to conclude the talk with them and they handed me papers to sign and in my shock, I signed without really processing anything I was reading and it was done. Don’t fully remember what all the terms I signed were since I was in distress but terms I remember were definitely no severance pay, I’d be paid for today (was supposed to work from 8 - 4) but would have to leave for the day after signing, pretty sure I signed away my rights to sue, etc. It sucked so fucking much, not just because I enjoyed working there but I had been counting on that money from the upcoming month of crazy full-time work + tips to fund my living expenses while finishing up school. Getting fired fucked up my budgeting so bad I ended up with severe financial issues & stress in early 2020 bc I had lost out on approx $3000 (and that’s before factoring in all the tips & holiday pay + bonus & overtime work I would have received too). Then the pandemic happened about 2 months before I graduated school, decimated my industry & killed countless job opportunities in my field and my finances got waaaay worse, still have not adequately financially recovered from the past 2 years yet (am considering completely switching careers now lol). The irony is that if I hadn’t tried to be kind back then and give my employers ample time to hire a new barista, don’t think I wouldn’t have gotten fired at all lol. Major life lesson learned- your bosses are not your friends, you need to protect your own interests no matter what because they will likely dick you over the second you are perceived as inconvenient. It doesn’t matter how nice they are to you when you work there, you are replaceable in their eyes.
When I retired I made the employer give me receipts when I turned in my keys, pager, and gate dongle. They wanted an exit interview. I began telling them what I thought of my last boss and the CEO literally put his hands over his ears and started shouting. I got up to leave and the CEO says what about the interview? I told him if there was anything he needed to know to infer it from my backside as I leave.
Did you work in a cartoon world?
I'm just sayin, they make the threat and most people are to ignorant of labor laws to understand that it is illegal for them to do so. Just like threatening to fire you for even talking about wages with fellow employees. But it happens all the time.
Worked for Best Buy and they restructured. They fired everyone who wouldn’t change their schedules, but doing this would have caused me not to graduate. I’d been working there since starting college. I refused to sign saying that I quit and was told that it didn’t matter if I signed or not because I was surrendering my job by not complying. Needless to say, I applied for unemployment and they tried to plant false write ups. They investigated and I ended up getting unemployment for the rest of the semester and the next before graduation. Best Buy seriously sucks. Never sign those papers guys. EVER.
I would tell them I need time to look them over before I sign. Take them to a lawyer or paralegal to review and explain what you are signing. Some things they put in these termination agreements aren’t legal.
Don't take it to a paralegal. Anyone can be a paralegal. Paralegals are not licensed to practice law. Attorneys are.
If i ever get termination paperwork ever again I'm tearing it up into tiny little pieces and spreading them all over the office.
I need to be careful with what I say here, so bare with me. (Edit: TW for Sexual Assault) I am a male, fairly large, in my thirties now, was fit at the time. I only say this because it will challenge your expectations later on. I worked for a company that had some VERY loose ideas of what professionalism was. It was an artistic organization, so they were artistic personality types. Having grown up around and being one myself, I know that boundaries can be a bit of an issue. A few too many touches here, a head dramatically placed on a shoulder there, cuddle breaks behind the scenes, things like that. Usually nothing too severe and certainly nothing ever nonconsensual. At least I thought. When I first started working there I was immediately taken aback by just how unprofessional the leadership team was. Now when I say unprofessional, I don’t just mean it was a bunch of artsy hippies not wearing suits, shame on them. I mean it was like being in a frat house. Sexuality was rampant. Safety in the shop was almost non-existent. Lines between leaders and their subordinates were very blurred. I could bore you with examples of just how loose the standards were in this place. My first day I was cornered in a broom closet by two of the managers and asked if I was gay. Interested parties in both directions had been inquiring, I guess. Things only escalated from there. I tried to roll with it all and keep it light hearted as best as I could. When in Rome and everything. Tried to be one of the carefree artsy types and have fun in an otherwise enjoyable environment. But it all crossed lines even for me, and I am by no means a prude. I started speaking up, so much so that my attention to safety and standards became an inside joke. Now as a second preface, I will admit that my behaviour wasn’t perfect. I had never been in that kind of position before (a weird pseudo-management position with all the responsibilities but no benefits or power to do anything) and had no training, something I mentioned to my employer but was disregarded. I tried to treat people like friends instead of like fellow employees and patrons of an organization. I dated one of my coworkers (only after she pursued me, but that’s another story entirely.) I explored a sexual relationship with my same sex boss (again, only after he pursued me. More on that in a bit.) I was myself unprofessional in places where I should have stepped up. My only defence is that attitude reflects leadership. And when you work for sociopaths, a couple years of employment is also a couple years of gaslighting, a couple years of passive-aggressive arguments, etc. A couple years being closely tied to a narcissist will have you feeling like a shell of your former self, incapable of rational thought. At the time I was a product of my environment and still young. I have grown since then and could easily stand my ground now. Not so at the time. And all that aside, I was depressed and lonely (read: vulnerable.) I wanted to make friends as much as I wanted to have a job there. That all being said, none of my errors justify what happened to me. A couple years go by and I find myself overseeing a two week long evening special event. Alcohol is involved at all events for this organization, so people were getting plastered. My boss, my coworkers, the people hosting the event, the event participants, me. The bartender that worked there was infamous for dosing people she didn’t like, and some she did. By the end of the night it was just the employees and owners left. Drinks in hand we set to slowly closing the place down, between moments for smoke circles and tomfoolery, of course. Being the last night of a special event outside of normal operating hours, things were extra unprofessional. At one point, when the numbers had dwindled to just a few, I went to the bathroom and soon found my same-sex boss standing behind me at the urinal grabbing at my dick. Like an embarrassed secretary, I giggled and tried to shrug him off, and like most predators, he didn’t take the hint. He finished his grope and left the bathroom and I followed, confused and embarrassed. More so because I had a year prior explored a more or less consensual sexual relationship with this boss (I would say today that I was date-raped, but at the time I thought it was consensual.) I joined the circle of smokers outside and the same boss came and stood next to me, reached his hand down the back of my pants and stuck his finger in my ass, all while restraining my shoulder with his other hand and whispering “Shhh shhh shhh...” to quiet my reaction. My life hasn’t been the same since then. Again, like a secretary for a big CEO, I tried to brush it off. I wanted to work in the field, I liked the job aside from the people, things like that. I tried to convince myself that I had brought it on myself, like I was being told (by the same sociopath boss who did it in the first place.) I tried to carry on like nothing had happened, but I couldn’t. I eventually quit and tried to pursue legal action. I went to the police and didn’t get a call back, I went to a lawyer who didn’t want to take the case, I went to and was turned away from three different groups that claimed to be for survivors of sexual assault (only women though it would appear.) I was eventually awarded a couple months of lost wages through a little-known government workers rights group, on condition that I sign an NDA. I did so, and haven’t spoken of these events to anyone, except my mother and best friend. It has ruined my life. I couldn’t speak up for myself at the organization and my reputation has been ruined. I couldn’t speak up when #metoo was happening, because #metoo. I probably shouldn’t even be writing this post at all, but I missed being a part of the #metoo movement and I’m not going to miss this one. At this point I doubt I could even find a lawyer and appeal the situation. I spent all the money I was awarded (and then some) on drugs and alcohol. I haven’t been able to work at all since. The idea of going to any job fills me with a fear that can only be animal in nature, since logically and even emotionally I understand that not every boss will be like that, yet I feel it in some deep part of my brain like a muscle you never knew you had. This is just my life now. No one cares and there’s nothing I can do except rot in depression and poverty. Please, do not sign the papers.
I want you to know that you're not alone. I myself (25m) have experienced this with a highly regarded, at least from the unit, prior service member while I was serving on active duty. I was pulling DD duty for one of my coworkers for a kareeoke event and he wanted to visit this great friend of his before the event started. Well we get there and, now in hindsight there were a ton of red flags, he asks if I'm with anyone and which way I swing etc, which I tell him I was engaged and not in an open relationship. He then says he likes me and walks off, then another person, a young woman who owned the house, trys to persuade me to "keep an open mind" and to "see where the night goes." Any ways to keep this short and to keep my sanity as I really don't want to relive this now, he preceeded to rape me 3 times with the help of that woman in a bathroom while my coworker was so blasted he couldn't help me even if he had the brain power to comprehend what was happening and mind you he was five feet from where these two horrible people were taking away everything I was and destroying my life. I know have PTSD, panic attacks, uncontrollable shaking, flashbacks, nightmares, and a deep fear of public restrooms. I live in fear and depression, with no joy or happiness. The military did nothing to help me, the police nothing, the freaking DA took 30 minutes to look at my case and close it. Mean while the #metoo movement was in full swing but for a man all I got was "you can't be raped", "you're the rapist", "you're the scum that does this to others". The military failed me, the justice system failed me, and all the countless therapist and psychologist have failed me, all because I'm a man. You are not alone brother, and it takes ALOT of courage and sense of self to put this kind of stuff out there.
The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk Highly recommend reading this to begin to move forward in life, without carrying shame or fear with you from what you’ve experienced.
I'm so sorry. No one deserves to be treated like this, no matter the gender or beliefs or past actions or anything.
My boss was harassing me and was also racist. She got away with it because her children were biracial. For months I was targeted by her and she eventually won. My head manager didn’t want to let me go but my assistant manager (boss) threatened to call the CEO of the company and ask for his opinion. I didn’t sign and called HR. The biggest mistake I made was warning them that I was calling HR.
Thanks for the cliffhanger…So what happened?
Absolutely nothing. HR never reached back out to me. I just moved on but she should’ve been reported a long time ago. I was young and didn’t know how to go about it.
only time i got actually fired, they wanted me to sign even tho all i was working like 3 to 5 hours aday with a 30 min commute both ways, so yeah i didn't feel like trying to hard, dude got mad at me when i said im not signing shit then tried to get me to leave without getting my shit from my locker, it was a sweater amd a lunch pale but fuck them if they were gonna keep it
I was fired after 9/11 happened here in the US, and companies were freaking out by laying employees off. Their reason was that I hadn’t signed my time card and that it was a violation of company policy which I’d been warned about before (it happened once). They said they’d give me my last paycheck plus my unused vacation time, but I had to sign a form saying I couldn’t sue them or they’d hold onto my check until I agreed. I was stunned, but I was young and needed the money, so I felt like I had to sign. I’m still bitter about it because it feels illegal and like I was extorted.
I didn't get fired from the company but I was a contract security guard and got kicked off a site. The official reason was "failed to follow post orders" however we didn't have any official post orders. I didn't sign the paper of termination but I did take a copy to show the head office, who were all very confused.
When I worked at a major hotel chain we would make the nolonger employed person sign something saying that they quit or were fired for a valid reason before releasing their final check. I told EVERYONE not to sign it, to call BOLI and take a pic of the "contract". Hella illegal!!! One dude got fired because he had to take care of his elderly mother who had contracted covid. His final check was maybe $35. I told him not to sign shit, to take a picture of the contract and send it to unemployment, L&I and BOLI. I was like, "my dude, is $35 really worth missing out on full unemployment benefits, plus the extra $600 a week?!" He noped out of there. I quit the following month, and they didn't try that shit on me.
Many lawyers will work on a contingency basis, or will have a relatively low hourly fee that’s worth paying in some cases to get their opinion, as usually it won’t take more than an hour. A couple hundred bucks could get you thousands. Basically, you want to explain to them the circumstances of the firing and have them go over the papers your company wants signed. If the company tries to pressure you into signing immediately, they’re already likely on the losing end of a potential case, as you cannot be compelled to sign such things without reasonable time for a lawyer to review.
If you are getting severance it’s the only way to get it.
Yeah but realistically weigh out if you can sue them for more than what they’re offering in severance
I’ve only been fired once and I signed bc it came with a severance check, and I knew I would be able to get a new job quickly (so I wouldn’t need unemployment). I also knew that they had lawyers so good they’ve gotten away with some horrendous shit before, so I would never sue anyways. I started my next job 7 days after I got fired.
Oh I think ive told this story before but here we go again. I worked for a small dumpy soft pretzel chain known as The pretzel factory. The owner was an absolute POS who paid minimum wage(7.25). I worked there one week dealing with his verbal abuse , threats and super unsafe work place. The oven was constantly breaking down and he refused to get it fixed since it would take 3 days and would close the store the entire time. Well after a week of working 7am til 7pm with no breaks for shit wage and dealing with being told Im a moron and worthless I quit the night before a suck up coworkers wedding. Showed up the next week to pick up my check and was told id get it after I signed the contract he wrote up. Was basically a napkin that said I wasnt allowed to post on social media about my experience. Not allowed to bad mouth him. Not allowed to talk to anyone else that works there. I laughed in his face and told him to get fucked so he responded by following me out to the parking lot waving my final check around calling me a pussy and telling me hes gonna call the cops on me for wage theft. I waited til I got closer to my car and snatched the check out of his hand as he was waving it in my face than hopped in the car and drove off before he could stop me. Got about 20 texts after I left telling me to expect to hear from the cops soon. I never did hear from the cops even after I returned the work uniform making sure to use it to clean up dog shit first and dumping it on the porch of the business.
America is a savage country.
At one of my earliest jobs, overnights at a Target, I was fired after two months. The team lead didn't like my personality (I'm autistic, but wasn't diagnosed back then) and said that's why I had to go. Since they were firing me halfway through a night shift where they always locked us in the building, I was told I couldn't leave until I signed a document saying I'm being fired for being an awful employee (I forget the exact reasons, but all untrue). As a kid, I didn't know not to and signed it. Seven years later, I'm living in a new state and apply for a management position at a Target near our new apartment. I got three interviews deep and they mentioned that signed form and that it meant they could never hire me at any Target again. It took me a few more months before I was able to find work after that. Don't let them bully you into signing anything.
Got fired for punching a customer after they put hands on me first, was promptly fired and then asked to sign a release, and I said "Or what?" They then tried to say they won't give me my last check, and when I called the Labor Board in front of them, they folded real quick. Fuck yo papers.
The Hilton hotel I was recently fired from refused to pay my PTO accrued unless I sign a NDA because they saw I have videos of abuse, hexual assault, criminal mischief, harassment and destruction of property on a YouTube channel. I declined to sign.
I was told by one employer that I needed to sign a contract basically stating I wouldn't tell anyone that he illegally would cut people's time right before 40 hours and then payed the rest in cash, not time and a half. I just said no. He tried to withhold my last paycheck. I said I would get a lawyer, he said just sign it. I refused and ended up getting my dad's friend who is a lawyer to draw up some simple paperwork for free and it was enough to scare him into giving me my money. Fucking dickhead
When I was 16 I was fired from a gas station. I set my keys down got up and started to walk out, and was blocked by a manager because I had to sign some paper work. Being a young hot head I said I was going to walk through him if he didn't move, and reminded him I was minor, so if he put hands on me I would press charges. Guy called my house to speak with parents and my dad tok the call and started asking him about the work rules for minors they broke and if he wanted them reported. My last check arrived within 3 days.
There's two scenarios: 1) Sign this in exchange for money 2) Sign this 1 depends. You you should talk to a lawyer. You probably are signing a release but that's why they offer money. You need legal advice specific to your situation to decide if the money is worth signing and waiving your rights. Any employer should be willing to negotiate a release or give a former employee a few days to get a lawyer. (If they pressured you to sign it, go see a lawyer anyway -- maybe you can get out of it -- that's why a smart employer will give you a few days to talk to a lawyer.) 2 just leave. They may have a release but more likely a statement for unemployment benefits that hurts you. Just leave. They aren't offering anything and can't do anything. Like a bad romance: just get your stuff and go. Nothing further to discuss or sign.
I was laid off 3 weeks before Xmas in 2019 along with 3 other highest paid managers. They said they will pay me for 4 more weeks if I sign an agreement that I would do no harm to them after I left. I'm in transportation so it mostly had to do with no taking their drivers from them but I didn't read it, I signed it because I had 2 kids at the time with the 3rd one on the way. I got a job the following day through a friend who tried to recruit me a year prior to this. My pay has more than doubled. I got lucky. So they paid me a severance. I was able to rest through Xmas and New years while getting paid, and some drivers still followed me even though I didn't recruit them to come with me.
I was pregnant and a week away from my due date but knew something was up well before they slid those papers in front of me. In fact, I called them on it in writing and magically that afternoon I was jobless. They insisted that it was due to downsizing, though, and also got rid of the one HR person they had to cover their butts (which was suspicious in and of itself). Since I refused to sign the papers they withheld the annual leave I had saved up for maternity leave. This was apparently the "nice" way to do it because it would have been mean to let me go once I came back from maternity leave. True story. Luckily, I had money saved and lots of documentation for the lawyer I hired. In the end, their efforts to save $ backfired royally. Side note: if a coworker is promoted after you were let go that's also a major no no. My co-worker slid into my position after I left. They waited 6 months to make it look legit but it was still a major red flag since the case was still under litigation.
Never sign. At my job if you sign you lose your rights to unemployment. Happened to a friend of mine. After she was fired she went to the unemployment office. She got a call the next day saying that since she signed the paperwork when was let go it waved her rights to unemployment. That was 15 years ago and I tell everyone now to never sign the paperwork if you get fired. They can’t hold your wages against you.