Quandry
New Member
- Jurisdiction
- Tennessee
After close to five years, I was suddenly told that my position had been eliminated because of the department's "change in direction" (no specifics) and I was escorted from the building. At the time I asked if this had anything to do with another employee who had told a series of ridiculous lies to my manager where she claimed that I had been repeatedly breaking the rules of a senior VP (her boss) over my own among other departments and upsetting him. After every time I was taken to task for these supposed violations, I insisted that they simply ask the Senior VP if he even had such absurd rules (such as a prohibition against slipping a document he needed under his door when he was out of his office), let alone that he told his assistant that he was angry with me for breaking them. The rules made him look like a petty fool, and he is not. And, why, I asked, is it that no one has ever heard of these supposed weird rules before she accused me of breaking them? And why am I the only person the Sr. VP is ticked off at?
In short, My boss's boss never asked that Sr. VP if he had actually had such rules and if he complained to his assistant that I hd repeatedly broken them (as if he wouldn't have gone to my boss or her boss directly if I had caused trouble instead of whining to an administrative assistant!). He was really in charge of other departments, but temporarily serving as our interim CIO, so for now my boss's boss reported to him... and she very much wanted to be our new CIO, and he was going to have some influence on that decision. So, if I went over her head to him, he'd have cleared my name but would have been ticked off at her for not telling him and also for believing that he would have such stupid rules and have acted like such a coward, and she'd have been furious with me. She would have made me suffer worse for that, especially when they hired someone else to be CIO. I was treated as if I were guilty of every accusation made against me, as if I had not just suddenly transformed into an unprofessional troublemaker, but also as if I had also become a liar for protesting my innocence each time. I had a very good relationship with my boss and great reviews until that point, an no one else, including the other managers in our department, believed my accuser, so I tried to get a position reporting to someone else, but there weren't any openings that fit. After many months of this Kafkaesque nightmare, things seemed to ease off a little, at least with my boss, and I was assigned a huge, important, and long-term project for which I was uniquely qualified in the company. I was doing a really good job at it, when soon after, all of a sudden, I was out the door. Since I was past reprisals at that point, I reported the incidents to HR, pointing out that their own anti-harassment policy prohibits one employee from doing that to another. I doubt anything will come of it.
To top it off, they didn't tell me that I had the right to elect an FSA COBRA, and since I wasn't aware there was such a thing (it wasn't one of the options they gave me), I came close to forfeiting the $700 of my savings in that account because I hadn't used it yet. Mind you, that was my money taken from my paychecks for six months. Guess who gets to keep FSA money that their ex-employees forfeit? Legally, they do. Luckily, I didn't believe that I had no choice but to forfeit my savings, so I I did a lot of research and found out that I was right. I told the COBRA manager about this and even gave her links to the law, but she acted as if she had never heard of it. She obviously didn't look because then she told me (this was all in email) that it was something optional and that their company "didn't do FSA COBRA". Polite throughout, I told her it wasn't an option for them, that it was mandated by federal law. Five hours after that last email, she finally sent me instructions on getting my savings back from them. Altogether it took me days to figure this out and to get them to finally relent. Obviously, they've never told any others in my same situation that their ex-employees had a right to not forfeit their savings to the company's coffers, and the COBRA selection form proves that (along with the emails). I got my savings, but I'd like to get the Department of Labor to investigate them so they can't take money from anyone else again.
What do I do? The severance is only three weeks of pay, but I'm suddenly out of work. I don't trust what I can't understand in the rest of the agreement, and if I sign it they will shut down their internal investigation and they'd sue me if I help the Dept. of Labor go after them for the COBRA issue... and I'm afraid I'll wind up losing what little they are offering me and more to attorney fees. If this is typical for a lot of companies and they usually get away with it, I don't see any sense in pursuing it. But if it isn't then, do to what they have done already, I guess I should have an attorney check the agreement.
In short, My boss's boss never asked that Sr. VP if he had actually had such rules and if he complained to his assistant that I hd repeatedly broken them (as if he wouldn't have gone to my boss or her boss directly if I had caused trouble instead of whining to an administrative assistant!). He was really in charge of other departments, but temporarily serving as our interim CIO, so for now my boss's boss reported to him... and she very much wanted to be our new CIO, and he was going to have some influence on that decision. So, if I went over her head to him, he'd have cleared my name but would have been ticked off at her for not telling him and also for believing that he would have such stupid rules and have acted like such a coward, and she'd have been furious with me. She would have made me suffer worse for that, especially when they hired someone else to be CIO. I was treated as if I were guilty of every accusation made against me, as if I had not just suddenly transformed into an unprofessional troublemaker, but also as if I had also become a liar for protesting my innocence each time. I had a very good relationship with my boss and great reviews until that point, an no one else, including the other managers in our department, believed my accuser, so I tried to get a position reporting to someone else, but there weren't any openings that fit. After many months of this Kafkaesque nightmare, things seemed to ease off a little, at least with my boss, and I was assigned a huge, important, and long-term project for which I was uniquely qualified in the company. I was doing a really good job at it, when soon after, all of a sudden, I was out the door. Since I was past reprisals at that point, I reported the incidents to HR, pointing out that their own anti-harassment policy prohibits one employee from doing that to another. I doubt anything will come of it.
To top it off, they didn't tell me that I had the right to elect an FSA COBRA, and since I wasn't aware there was such a thing (it wasn't one of the options they gave me), I came close to forfeiting the $700 of my savings in that account because I hadn't used it yet. Mind you, that was my money taken from my paychecks for six months. Guess who gets to keep FSA money that their ex-employees forfeit? Legally, they do. Luckily, I didn't believe that I had no choice but to forfeit my savings, so I I did a lot of research and found out that I was right. I told the COBRA manager about this and even gave her links to the law, but she acted as if she had never heard of it. She obviously didn't look because then she told me (this was all in email) that it was something optional and that their company "didn't do FSA COBRA". Polite throughout, I told her it wasn't an option for them, that it was mandated by federal law. Five hours after that last email, she finally sent me instructions on getting my savings back from them. Altogether it took me days to figure this out and to get them to finally relent. Obviously, they've never told any others in my same situation that their ex-employees had a right to not forfeit their savings to the company's coffers, and the COBRA selection form proves that (along with the emails). I got my savings, but I'd like to get the Department of Labor to investigate them so they can't take money from anyone else again.
What do I do? The severance is only three weeks of pay, but I'm suddenly out of work. I don't trust what I can't understand in the rest of the agreement, and if I sign it they will shut down their internal investigation and they'd sue me if I help the Dept. of Labor go after them for the COBRA issue... and I'm afraid I'll wind up losing what little they are offering me and more to attorney fees. If this is typical for a lot of companies and they usually get away with it, I don't see any sense in pursuing it. But if it isn't then, do to what they have done already, I guess I should have an attorney check the agreement.