Here's the deal:
I live in Wisconsin and I was laid off this morning.
As of mid November, I was weighing two job offers. The first would have had me move to DC; the second was an internship that would have me stay in Madison. I preferred to take a couple more math classes to end some unfinished course sequences in my math degree, so I asked the Madison job if they would let me work 30 hours a week for them. They agreed and sent me a revised job offer. I was to start 2 January, work 30 hours a week during the semester, and then work full time until 15 August.
I accepted the Madison job and declined the DC job on 30 November and 1 December, respectively.
On 2 January (Tuesday) I started working at the Madison job.
On 12 January (Thursday) RickW, the person who hired me and the head of the department I was working for, was laid off.
On 16 January (Monday) as I walked in to work I was laid off; it was explained that the project I was working on was being driven by the person who hired me and was no longer a priority for the company.
Now, my work was not the problem; this was made clear by HR this morning. Further, RickW verbally praised my work on Friday 6 January and my immediate supervisor emailed me a compliment on my work (an email I bounced to my home account) on Wed, 11 January.
So, my question: do I have any recourse? Is there any way to get, eg, a $2-5K settlement out of them? I'm not amazingly upset, but I am pissed that I turned down a job offer from a different company. I don't know if this is reflected in the law, but it seems to me that contingent upon good performance, a job offer should guarantee employment for at least 6 months or so. Given the short span of time between job offer and being laid off, I have a very hard time believing that their business situation changed drastically, or that my hiring was not in bad faith.
Thanks for any help / pointers. I'm spending the morning reading WI employment law, but I haven't found anything directly topical.
Also, if there is some basis in the law protecting me, do you recommend just approaching HR and offering to amicably settle this?
Thanks again,
Earl
I live in Wisconsin and I was laid off this morning.
As of mid November, I was weighing two job offers. The first would have had me move to DC; the second was an internship that would have me stay in Madison. I preferred to take a couple more math classes to end some unfinished course sequences in my math degree, so I asked the Madison job if they would let me work 30 hours a week for them. They agreed and sent me a revised job offer. I was to start 2 January, work 30 hours a week during the semester, and then work full time until 15 August.
I accepted the Madison job and declined the DC job on 30 November and 1 December, respectively.
On 2 January (Tuesday) I started working at the Madison job.
On 12 January (Thursday) RickW, the person who hired me and the head of the department I was working for, was laid off.
On 16 January (Monday) as I walked in to work I was laid off; it was explained that the project I was working on was being driven by the person who hired me and was no longer a priority for the company.
Now, my work was not the problem; this was made clear by HR this morning. Further, RickW verbally praised my work on Friday 6 January and my immediate supervisor emailed me a compliment on my work (an email I bounced to my home account) on Wed, 11 January.
So, my question: do I have any recourse? Is there any way to get, eg, a $2-5K settlement out of them? I'm not amazingly upset, but I am pissed that I turned down a job offer from a different company. I don't know if this is reflected in the law, but it seems to me that contingent upon good performance, a job offer should guarantee employment for at least 6 months or so. Given the short span of time between job offer and being laid off, I have a very hard time believing that their business situation changed drastically, or that my hiring was not in bad faith.
Thanks for any help / pointers. I'm spending the morning reading WI employment law, but I haven't found anything directly topical.
Also, if there is some basis in the law protecting me, do you recommend just approaching HR and offering to amicably settle this?
Thanks again,
Earl
