kittykat8207
New Member
I had a baby on March 18, 2010 & was on maternity leave til May 13 (8 weeks for a c-section) & was due back to work June 28 after taking the extra 6 weeks for paid family leave. The week before I was to go back I had personal family problems which I needed to take an additional 3 weeks before I could return to work. I tried to go back on July 19, told them my situation & was told I would be contacted when I could go back. I waited a week with no response & went back the next week on July 27. I was told by the manager from the owner that I was going to "legally need a doctor's note to excuse me" for the extra time I took & they didn't have to hold my job if I didn't get a note. I kept telling the manager how am I supposed to get a doctor's note when I wasn't out for medical reasons? & she said the owner said legally I need a doctor's note for me to come back. My prenatal doctor had released me back to work on May 14, my insurance coverage through my mom's work ended July 1 & I have a new doctor through medi-cal who I have never seen, there was no way I was going to get a doctor to excuse my absence if I wasn't even sick for that time. I called the manager on July 30 to inform them it was not going to be possible for me to get a note & she said she would call me back. She finally called me back the next week on August 4 to tell me that legally I needed that note & I told them I couldn't get it, so pretty much they said I couldn't go back & we exchanged goodbyes. I filed for unemployment that same morning & started looking for a new job. Then on August 9 & 11 I got phone calls from my old manager wanting to arrange a meeting with the owner. I never responded & on August 14 I received a letter stating that if I "didn't respond back to the manager within 72 hours that my position would be considered abandoned" at the pharmacy.
How can I abandon a position that they already let me go from? & if I couldn't get a doctor's note like they said then legally how could I return to work? Me & my family feel like this is harassment & this letter is a threat that if i don't come back to work that they are going to say I abandoned my job which is going to stop me from getting unemployment. My family feels I should file a suit in small claims court for the threat & harassment & to pay me back for all the time they had me waiting for a response from them to see if I could go back to work. I am already a month behind on bills & have been borrowing from family & friends to make my car & credit card payments. If they were going to let me come back to work I don't feel they should have waited a month, let me go, then threaten me to go back. Do you think I have a good reason to take them to the small claims court & would be able to win?
sorry this is long i tried to just put only the facts but it's a big long mess i'm going through.
How can I abandon a position that they already let me go from? & if I couldn't get a doctor's note like they said then legally how could I return to work? Me & my family feel like this is harassment & this letter is a threat that if i don't come back to work that they are going to say I abandoned my job which is going to stop me from getting unemployment. My family feels I should file a suit in small claims court for the threat & harassment & to pay me back for all the time they had me waiting for a response from them to see if I could go back to work. I am already a month behind on bills & have been borrowing from family & friends to make my car & credit card payments. If they were going to let me come back to work I don't feel they should have waited a month, let me go, then threaten me to go back. Do you think I have a good reason to take them to the small claims court & would be able to win?
sorry this is long i tried to just put only the facts but it's a big long mess i'm going through.