In February 2009, I was diagnosed with a rare terminal neurologic disease. I was devastated. For 30 years I have worked as an agronomist/farm manager for large corporations. Over the years I have built an excellent reputation as a manager and knowledgeable agronomist. I was beginning to lose the ability to walk. I was honest with my employer and asked for another year on the job which I was capable of doing. My boss quickly hired my replacement for me to train.
My boss began making frequent trips to the farm and was having secret meetings with my replacement. I did my best to train the replacement, but it was obvious he had been told to ignore me. Within a couple of months my boss started harassing me about quitting even though the farm, by his own admission, was going well. My boss had admitted to me before that he had a history of domestic violence. His wife had been hospitalized after one of the incidents. He joked about it and blamed her. I was very uneasy around my boss. One day he visited and demanded I fire two employees, but there was no cause other than he wanted to "shake things up". I told him I could write them up if there was a good cause, but I could not legally fire them. He became angry and came at me with balled up fists. It scared me and I cried. He said because I had cried, I was no longer fit to do the job. He told me I was fired. I contacted the CEO (his brother) and he said that I was not fired and advised me to "stay away" from his brother until "he calmed down". I was told to meet with the CEO in Florida in a couple of days.
During the meeting with the CEO, I apologized for crying and told him that it was not a normal thing for me to do. The CEO accepted my apology and offered me another position as Technical Services Manager, which was what I had been hired to do before they had transferred me over to farm manager.
The technical service visits went fine and I reported via company email to the CEO every week. The CEO stopped replying within a few weeks, but I continued reporting thinking he was probably out of town.
I lived 1/2 mile from the farm I had been managing, but I stayed away. Then, I heard from three different employees that my old boss had told several of the men at the farm that they should "shoot and kill" me if I came near the farm. Widowed and alone this was very frightening to me. He may have been "joking" but several of the employees on the farm are former felons and heavy alcoholics. I was concerned with what could happen to me if one of them got drunk and drove by my house.
The new farm manager began making prank calls to my company cell phone at all hours of the night.
I felt I had no one to turn to for help. The CEO did not respond to email.
I turned in the last set of technical service reports I had been assigned. I made sure I did an excellent job on everything. I tried to contact the CEO to get my next assignment and discovered he had my company email connection cut-off. He was unavailable for comment.
I never received any notice of any kind. The HR manager was unaware of anything and was of no use.
With the death threat and the communication cut-off, I turned in my company gear and filed for unemployment. In my view, I was laid off from lack of work. The company told Unemployment that I had quit for health reasons.
The stress over the threats and job loss with the move to Florida has caused serious health set backs and has led to two hospitalization. They have literally shortened my life through cruelty. Now the company wants me to fight them for Unemployment.
What are my legal options against this company?
Thank you
My boss began making frequent trips to the farm and was having secret meetings with my replacement. I did my best to train the replacement, but it was obvious he had been told to ignore me. Within a couple of months my boss started harassing me about quitting even though the farm, by his own admission, was going well. My boss had admitted to me before that he had a history of domestic violence. His wife had been hospitalized after one of the incidents. He joked about it and blamed her. I was very uneasy around my boss. One day he visited and demanded I fire two employees, but there was no cause other than he wanted to "shake things up". I told him I could write them up if there was a good cause, but I could not legally fire them. He became angry and came at me with balled up fists. It scared me and I cried. He said because I had cried, I was no longer fit to do the job. He told me I was fired. I contacted the CEO (his brother) and he said that I was not fired and advised me to "stay away" from his brother until "he calmed down". I was told to meet with the CEO in Florida in a couple of days.
During the meeting with the CEO, I apologized for crying and told him that it was not a normal thing for me to do. The CEO accepted my apology and offered me another position as Technical Services Manager, which was what I had been hired to do before they had transferred me over to farm manager.
The technical service visits went fine and I reported via company email to the CEO every week. The CEO stopped replying within a few weeks, but I continued reporting thinking he was probably out of town.
I lived 1/2 mile from the farm I had been managing, but I stayed away. Then, I heard from three different employees that my old boss had told several of the men at the farm that they should "shoot and kill" me if I came near the farm. Widowed and alone this was very frightening to me. He may have been "joking" but several of the employees on the farm are former felons and heavy alcoholics. I was concerned with what could happen to me if one of them got drunk and drove by my house.
The new farm manager began making prank calls to my company cell phone at all hours of the night.
I felt I had no one to turn to for help. The CEO did not respond to email.
I turned in the last set of technical service reports I had been assigned. I made sure I did an excellent job on everything. I tried to contact the CEO to get my next assignment and discovered he had my company email connection cut-off. He was unavailable for comment.
I never received any notice of any kind. The HR manager was unaware of anything and was of no use.
With the death threat and the communication cut-off, I turned in my company gear and filed for unemployment. In my view, I was laid off from lack of work. The company told Unemployment that I had quit for health reasons.
The stress over the threats and job loss with the move to Florida has caused serious health set backs and has led to two hospitalization. They have literally shortened my life through cruelty. Now the company wants me to fight them for Unemployment.
What are my legal options against this company?
Thank you
