Need Advice

[alegrand]

My employment was recently terminated at a company I had faithful served at for 3.5 years. I was in the Information Technology department of the company. My manager was demoted and a new manager moved in as a temprary replacement until a new one was hired. I had a recent review recieving enough positive to merit a solid raise ...again! Point being my standing at the company was definitley on the positive side. One day I came to work and was confronted by an HR representative and this new manager who asked to spek to me in his office. I was told that this last week was a difficult week and after discovering that I had deleted logs from a company machine and attempted to cover my tracks and lied about it my employment was hereby terminated! My initial inside response was shock and disbelief. It was not like I did something malicious and was expecting this to occur, it was totally out of the blue. What I was being accused of was absaloutley FALSE! I was asked to turn in my badge, cell phone and given a box to pack my personal belongings. I then waited on the corner for my wife and two kids to come and pick me up (since I had carpooled that day to work)
After taking some time to think about it I obvously wonder why I was let go since I did not do what I was accused of. My dilema is I am young (25), have a wife and two kids, a mortgage and bills. Not only was I terminaed with no severance and no health insurance I now have to deal with attempting to get a new position somewhere else. The difficulty there is when a company is interested in my employment they will do a referece check to my old comapny's HR department and ask if I am eligable for rehire. At that point HR will respond no leaving me without a job and a "bacl eye" forever. I feel like a criminal or at least that I have been treated as such.
My questions are around advice. My goal is to somehow challenge this termination and all I want is my name/record cleared so I am able to get emplyment again. What is the best way to go about this? Shall I look for legal assistance in a lawyer? (keep in mind I am way short on funds) Is there third party litigation available in Arizona for these types of issues? As well, I do have a few dependable contacts that are officers in the company and are good friends. Should I take the chance at working something with them? Keep in mind, I am NOT after money or to tarnish the company I just want to be able to get another job that i deserve and if anything recieve so sort of extended health benefits that my former employer would cover until I find a position.

THANKS for listening. Any advice (preferably from a legal expert or someone who has experience with a similar situation) is GREATLY appreciated)

AML

 

[NYClex]

hm, it very much depends on your employment contract if you have any chance legally to go against that termination, I do not know the AZ law in that case, but I fear that you will be an "at will" employee who can be terminated any time for no reason at all (unless it is a clear case of discrimination/civil rights violation, but it does definitely not sound like it is).

So, not wanting to discourage you from inquiring about your legal options, nevertheless I would suggest strongly that you try working on your contacts to management. Even if they can't get you rehired they might at least make sure that no bad remarks will be in the file.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I would tend to agree with NYClex. You may wish to document your disagreement with the determination for your firing, especially if it affects an unemployment claim as well. I would follow up for this and the reasons of your concern so that you won't have bad references for future employment.

What happened when you denied the accusations? Did they give you any proof as to what happened or was this just a bare claim? Is there an employee handbook with any policies describing human resources policies?

Originally posted by alegrand
My employment was recently terminated at a company I had faithful served at for 3.5 years. I was in the Information Technology department of the company. My manager was demoted and a new manager moved in as a temprary replacement until a new one was hired. I had a recent review recieving enough positive to merit a solid raise ...again! Point being my standing at the company was definitley on the positive side. One day I came to work and was confronted by an HR representative and this new manager who asked to spek to me in his office. I was told that this last week was a difficult week and after discovering that I had deleted logs from a company machine and attempted to cover my tracks and lied about it my employment was hereby terminated! My initial inside response was shock and disbelief. It was not like I did something malicious and was expecting this to occur, it was totally out of the blue. What I was being accused of was absaloutley FALSE! I was asked to turn in my badge, cell phone and given a box to pack my personal belongings. I then waited on the corner for my wife and two kids to come and pick me up (since I had carpooled that day to work)
After taking some time to think about it I obvously wonder why I was let go since I did not do what I was accused of. My dilema is I am young (25), have a wife and two kids, a mortgage and bills. Not only was I terminaed with no severance and no health insurance I now have to deal with attempting to get a new position somewhere else. The difficulty there is when a company is interested in my employment they will do a referece check to my old comapny's HR department and ask if I am eligable for rehire. At that point HR will respond no leaving me without a job and a "bacl eye" forever. I feel like a criminal or at least that I have been treated as such.
My questions are around advice. My goal is to somehow challenge this termination and all I want is my name/record cleared so I am able to get emplyment again. What is the best way to go about this? Shall I look for legal assistance in a lawyer? (keep in mind I am way short on funds) Is there third party litigation available in Arizona for these types of issues? As well, I do have a few dependable contacts that are officers in the company and are good friends. Should I take the chance at working something with them? Keep in mind, I am NOT after money or to tarnish the company I just want to be able to get another job that i deserve and if anything recieve so sort of extended health benefits that my former employer would cover until I find a position.

THANKS for listening. Any advice (preferably from a legal expert or someone who has experience with a similar situation) is GREATLY appreciated)

AML