banana_hammock
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- New Jersey
Hi all,
Forgive me for the rather lengthy post but I feel this is a matter worth discussing.. So I worked for a tech company as a associate and I was recently terminated without notice recently on 10/5/2020. When I asked why, HR said: "that the decision to terminate your employment contract is based on your prolonged bench duration. We must let you know that the Company's decision on the matter is in-line with standard policy guidelines and applicable criteria." Which basically means I was on bench for too long.
But I have a feeling it was actually because one of the managers just didn't like me for whatever reason. During the call he had a pretty weak case to justify terminating me, but HR still seemed to side with him.
First HR suddenly arranged a mandatory meeting with me (I had no idea what is was about). That's when they suddenly started saying that I was being terminated as if I knew this was going to happen. During the conversation, the manager was trying to justify his complaints to HR.
His first reason was that I had not contacted him to help me find a project. At which I said that I had no idea I was even supposed to specifically contact him. He never introduced himself to me and I was never told by anyone I was supposed to go to him for projects. In fact, I was already in contact with other managers about potential projects to place me on. So I felt that there wasn't even any need to specifically contact him. Had it been made clear that I was supposed to reach out to him, I definitely would have done so.
Then he tried to say that I had not attended certain group meeting which he apparently emailed me about. I could not find the emails at all in my inbox, so when I asked him about it, he had not clear answer. He could not even prove that they were mandatory to attend meetings.
Furthermore, his last point was that I had apparently rejected a project offer from another manager. When in fact I did not outright 'reject' the offer, but simply stated that I was not available at the time because I was already in contact with other managers prospecting me for different projects which I had more interest in and aligns more with my experience. Basically they were trying to make me do work that I was not trained for as a software developer.
So all in all I feel like his case is pretty weak but HR was still very adamant about terminating me. When I asked HR to send me the documents outlining the company bench policy to gain some clarity, the lady kept changing the subject.. When I sent her an email asking for the documents she said that the reason for my terminating was already explained in the call.. I replied that there was still some ambiguity on my half and asked her again to please send the documents (which should not be a problem at all) but she never replied to the email..
This leads me to feel a little suspicious that they are maybe hiding something. Possibly some form of discrimination going on here? Or maybe that they know they don't have a good case for terminating me and don't want me to sue? My question is should I have this looked in to further by an attorney? Would it be worth my time to try sueing?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I have been wrongly terminated and I wanted to ask a knowledgeable community before paying money for an attorney. Thanks and regards.
Forgive me for the rather lengthy post but I feel this is a matter worth discussing.. So I worked for a tech company as a associate and I was recently terminated without notice recently on 10/5/2020. When I asked why, HR said: "that the decision to terminate your employment contract is based on your prolonged bench duration. We must let you know that the Company's decision on the matter is in-line with standard policy guidelines and applicable criteria." Which basically means I was on bench for too long.
But I have a feeling it was actually because one of the managers just didn't like me for whatever reason. During the call he had a pretty weak case to justify terminating me, but HR still seemed to side with him.
First HR suddenly arranged a mandatory meeting with me (I had no idea what is was about). That's when they suddenly started saying that I was being terminated as if I knew this was going to happen. During the conversation, the manager was trying to justify his complaints to HR.
His first reason was that I had not contacted him to help me find a project. At which I said that I had no idea I was even supposed to specifically contact him. He never introduced himself to me and I was never told by anyone I was supposed to go to him for projects. In fact, I was already in contact with other managers about potential projects to place me on. So I felt that there wasn't even any need to specifically contact him. Had it been made clear that I was supposed to reach out to him, I definitely would have done so.
Then he tried to say that I had not attended certain group meeting which he apparently emailed me about. I could not find the emails at all in my inbox, so when I asked him about it, he had not clear answer. He could not even prove that they were mandatory to attend meetings.
Furthermore, his last point was that I had apparently rejected a project offer from another manager. When in fact I did not outright 'reject' the offer, but simply stated that I was not available at the time because I was already in contact with other managers prospecting me for different projects which I had more interest in and aligns more with my experience. Basically they were trying to make me do work that I was not trained for as a software developer.
So all in all I feel like his case is pretty weak but HR was still very adamant about terminating me. When I asked HR to send me the documents outlining the company bench policy to gain some clarity, the lady kept changing the subject.. When I sent her an email asking for the documents she said that the reason for my terminating was already explained in the call.. I replied that there was still some ambiguity on my half and asked her again to please send the documents (which should not be a problem at all) but she never replied to the email..
This leads me to feel a little suspicious that they are maybe hiding something. Possibly some form of discrimination going on here? Or maybe that they know they don't have a good case for terminating me and don't want me to sue? My question is should I have this looked in to further by an attorney? Would it be worth my time to try sueing?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I feel like I have been wrongly terminated and I wanted to ask a knowledgeable community before paying money for an attorney. Thanks and regards.