I used the term “offense” as a potential breach in his contract, not as a criminal infraction.
Since he works in customer service, it is true that if he “uses” things such as “response trees” or other dialogues, it would be hard to prove damages, but if he somehow left with client lists or other things of that nature, it wouldn’t be as difficult to prove-up damages as you might think. Not a cakewalk, but can be done.
Fair enough.
Start working LinkedIn like a mo-fo.
Get a new, professionally done resume.
Start ordering new prescriptions slightly ahead. Get a new pair of glasses, dental stuff fixed, etc.
If your sick leave is not refundable, use it.
You are toast. You were toast before the position was announced.
I disagree regarding the “Trade Secrets” argument. If he tried to use the manuals or presentations unchanged it would be. If he based future work too completely upon them it would be. But if he looks back at old work to remind himself “How did we phrase that again?” in the course of writing or assembling new materials, that is perfectly OK.
I wouldn’t encourage anyone to steal from their present or former company. My response was directed towards the notion that the simple act of copying data to an external hard drive could be grounds for firing him/her. I can’t imagine why that would be the case when there is a very obvious, extremely innocuous reason for doing so.
That being said, moving data to a cloud, especially a personal one, is an entirely different matter.
Lots of companies, be they financial institutions or hair salons, prohibit the taking of client data once an employee exits the firm. And IT can track if/when an employee accesses documents, prints documents, and when and where the documents are saved. What they cannot control is clients contacting former employees via Facebook or LinkedIn. If I was in fear of my job, I’d make sure that my profile and contact information was up to date.
It’s not unheard of for a manager who has to designate somebody for a program that will take them out of production for awhile to send whoever he thinks is his least-valuable employee. That supposedly limits loss of productivity and gets an annoying person out of the way for awhile.
But no matter what, yeah, they want you out so you’re out. Get over it fast and get the next job lined up.
Even if he’s not an at will employee it’s sufficient grounds for firing unless there’s a specific company policy in place allowing him to copy those materials. They seem to be dead set on firing him anyway so they’d use anything as an excuse, if they need one at all. But this would be something they could report as ‘cause’ that would affect his ability to collect unemployment compensation. They don’t sound very nice, he really has to cover his ass from here on out.
Your company is encouraging the backup process, and if his was doing the same he’d have some grounds to fight back, and I think it would actionable if they accused him of doing that when it was within company policy, but if it’s not he’ll be screwed. Just trying to fight a charge like that will leave marks in his permanent internet record that employers are checking in more depth now even if the company made a specious claim.
“Permanent internet record”?
If you have to challenge a claim of termination for cause they can probably find it. An employer may not care if you were in the right or not, just finding your name associated with a termination for cause might get your application rejected.
I’m reading it that the new manager is using that to build a case against the OP. If the Op does not leave, he will be forced out, the new manager needs to show that the OP needed to be sent back for training. This doesn’t seem fair to the OP, he just seems to be a pawn coiught up in this corporate restructuring, probably the new manager knows who he’s gonna hire already, the OP is just overstaying his welcome.
Well, it doesn’t hurt to prep for the worst, but doesn’t the OP say there used to be more trainers on the team? Isn’t possible they are hiring more of “you”?
I agree it seems unlikely they are investing in you if they are planning to terminate (although stranger things have happened).
Hang tight.
It would be a lot stranger in a small company; things are different in bigger ones; they have resources to spend(or waste, depending on your perspective) on making sure the I’ and t’s are crossed and everyone is on hyper CYA mode.
Can we assume that the OP got canned today, had to turn in his laptop and smartphone, and is catching a plane back home…since we haven’t heard back from him?
Hey, im here…ugg…irritated because I had a great response and the screen froze up on me…anyhoo…
I ran into my boss first thing this morning and just cut to the chase. Told her about the posting that was forwarded to me and my concern. She reminded me that they still needed to backfill the position and that because we were ramping up, yadda yadda yadda. Lol…really wish my post from 15 minutes ago hadn’t of gotten stuck.
So- great responses from all, I truly appreciate it. I started updating my resume last week when I was internalizing all the anger from having to travel during a very difficult time for my family. I was also thinking about all the medical stuff I need to catch up with as well as for my family. I will toe the line (like I believed I had been doing all along) inundate them with follow up emails which they never open (read receipt is good to me) and continue my search for a new job. It just irks me that someone’s annoyance/dislike of me can endanger the life that I choose to provide for my family. All on some freaking whim.
One more rant…the new AVP was at HQ last week and my manager “revealed” to me that she was the one who really had it in for me at my site. She didn’t like the answer that I gave her when she expressed her concern with some hiring criteria that she wanted to improve and I remarked that making our unscripted portion of the call more “professional” would alienate our main demographic of consumer and intimidate them. I cited zero quality control issues and zero complaints regarding the “professionalism” of our script. She spent a good portion of her time trying to get her script and terminology approved by general counsel. And here I will insert some snarky comment since I am unable to drink my woes away, the “script” and “terminology” was probably stuff that is proprietary and appropriated by whoever she has waiting in the wings to come take my place…
Come an get me coppers!!!
You never know, the timing might just work out. A friend of mine found a new job but before she could give her boss her resignation letter, she was called in & laid off. She was let go immediately (common in tech field, so you can’t be vindictive & mess with anything that won’t be found until ???) + given severance. So she ended up with a two-week paid vacation & no stress because she already knew she had the new job. Winning!
How about a little preemptive action? Go to HR, file a formal complaint of discrimination (age, gender, religion,whichever ). If they fire you, it could be seen as retaliation…which of course, is prohibited. You keep your job, until you want to leave
“I’d like to file a formal complaint about discrimination.”
“What kind of discrimination?”
“Age, gender, religion, whichever.”
“And throw in some sexual harrassment while you’re at it!”
I agree that the OP needs to update his resume, Linked In profile, reach out to professional contacts, get all his medical stuff done NOW (and refill your meds, too), and so on.
However, no one ever has to admit to being fired. Companies don’t tell other companies that they terminated an employee – most just provide start and end dates, job title, and salary information.
Get your professional contacts to post to your skillset on Linked In. Use them for references.
Come up with a good reason for leaving the company. Layoffs are a good one. “Department consolidation” also works.
Happens a lot at my large company…and it has worked for some really bad employees …once a complaint is filed, it needs to be investigated internally, if firing is imminent,this could buy you some time