Fired for doing what everyone else did

[Laney]

I was fired on 8/9/04. I had been working at this company for only 6 months. After beeing there for 2 months I sat down with the owner to just chat. At this time, I explained to hime that i took short but frequent smoke breaks during the day. He did not respond. 4 Months later, he called me and told me that I was required to remain at my desk at all times except for 10 am break, lunch and 3pm break. I reminded hime of the previous conversation. He stated that he didn't care what we previously discussed. I told him that I would not be willing to do this as no one else in the company was required to. He stated the break times were posted in the back. I explained that it was my understaning that those times applied to the people in the shop and that i was not given this information at time of hire. He stated that i must have a personal problem that i needed to get professional help with if i could not wait till 10am for a smoke. I explained that i did not say that i couldn't, i said i was not willing to becuase the people in the shop smoked while working and were not required wait till 10 am to smoke. And that there are 7 people in the office that smoke and i observe them going out any time that they like. I would see them each time I went out. He said that i no longer had a job... Is this any sort of descrimination?

 

[cbg]

Not unless you have a VALID reason to believe that you were fired BECAUSE OF your race, religion, national origin, gender, disability, pregnancy or disability; in other words, if another employee who has worked in your area who had also only worked there for six months, but was of a different race, religion etc. and had the exact same argument with the boss, that person would not have been fired.

Under no law, Federal or state, do you have a right to take smoking breaks. What other people do is of no concern of yours. The rules in a different department may be different; they may make allowances for employees who have worked there longer.

I'd fire an employee, too, if I told them they were to stop doing something and they essentially told me they wouldn't.