The whole situation seems bizarre. He was promoted to a small struggling part of the company and in less than a year completely turned it around. He eliminated waste, trained up a very good assistant and set record sales numbers. A job opened up in a bigger location in the company and they offered it too him. He has been there a little over a month. On Friday, a corporate person came in an informed him he was fired and he would be getting **one week severance **.
In the short time he was in the new job, he had already reduced expenses and showed a small increase in sales. The overall net was up by a good amount.
Now he has had no warnings, written or verbal. He has no contract. He is suppose to get his final check and an exit interview, but they have not told him when. He tried calling the owner yesterday, but he was not put through. It was the owner that gave him both promotions and the owner’s son that had brought him in initially. He has willingly moved with twice for this company without reimbursement.
The company apparently has no HR department.
So far, the situation sound pretty fishy and it appears to be that the company has probably left itself open for a wrongful termination case. I know very little about this, I was wondering what others thought of the situation and if I am at all correct about the wrongful termination.
Any suggestion about what he should do in the exit interview to leave himself in the best situation possible?
Assuming he’s also in New Jersey, he’s in an at-will state, which basically means that anyone can be fired for no reason at all at any time. The only exceptions are protected classes like race or disabled status.
So really, there’s not much your friend can do. My sympathies - I was once “laid off” in a similar situation. One week, I had one of the owners of the company in my office, telling me how great I was. Two weeks later, I was let go with no notice. They did give me a month severance, so I wasn’t totally SOL. But it still was not much fun.
I thought he might have a case as companies are usually very careful to do all the groundwork with records and written warnings in my experience. These were all NJ companies, so I am surprised.
Is this a family business? Could be he is getting fired so they can hire someone else they are related to. Or he has done such a good job they think, “Hey we can take it from here.” Sucks both ways, but your friend sounds talented.Hopefully he can get another job soon.
I asked and he could think of nothing, nor did they say so far.
It is a family business. You might be correct on the giving the job to someone else, but he has done such a good job, that I would have expected them to show some loyalty and either move him somewhere else or back where he was.
I guess it is pertinent to mention the owners are Italian and usually show a stereotypical Italian loyalty. Especially to another paisano. This really came as a shock to him. He really liked the job and talks about it a lot. He should find another job quickly, especially as he is single and willing to move. He just fit in very well where he was at and this has come out of nowhere.
As I explained in my second post, I thought companies needed to document and keep a paper trail on employees before just firing them. It appears I am naive and wrong.
There was another thread on this recently. It’s happened to me twice. Loyalty and gratitude don’t stand a chance in the face of profit. Your friend literally worked himself out of a job by making the company profitable and establishing processes that are self-perpetuating and can be monitored by someone at a much lower salary level.
You need to document if you are firing for cause. If you are operating in a state that doesn’t require you to name cause, then it’s often prudent not to name one, because the cause can be disputed.
Make sure he signs up for unemployment. This is what unemployment is for, when you get kicked out of a job for reasons that are not your fault, you get a cushion to help you while you find a new job.
He should ask if they would provide him with a letter of recommendation to show people he’s interviewing with, so that they know he’s not a bum who deserved to be fired.
Some companies are open about their business plans to reduce staff and positions and may announce or forewarn of it.
Others (like family run business’) may not be so open about it and may just cut people with no explanation or warning, feeling it’s a private business matter and it’s none of the employee’s business.
That seriously sucks. My dad was “laid off” (fired) from a job he held for 16 years so that the idiot son of the owner could have it. Just like that, never a problem on the job, the most reliable employee you could want. 16 years meant nothing when it came to family needs.
Kill them all in the face? Hostage situation? Or he should just hold a long term grudge so that come the revolution those cunts are the first against the wall. shrug
Loyalty is a one way street. You must be loyal and love your company. They will dump you if someone else will do it cheaper. Or if they just want to make a change.
I know very few loyal employees. Most people stick with a company because they cannot find something better. Most people I know would leave their job for a 25% increase in pay. I also know people that left jobs to try something new.
Sorry for your friend.