My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: California
Hello, I had a terrible experience at my last job and would like to know if I should pursue any legal action. I will explain my experience in brief detail. Prior to starting at this location, I had worked at another location for 5 months and then relocated so I didn’t require much training. I really enjoyed working there so when I had to move I decided to stay with the same company and inquired at the location closest to my new residence. The owner was happy to hear I had experience but the senior staff was not. My first day was a sign of things to come. The owner was not there and no one knew I was starting that day. The crew seemed distracted and frustrated by my presence. I was ignored by the first few employees I approached for direction until I asked a cluster of passing employees if I could speak to the manager. One girl then informed me that the manager wasn’t their but she was the assistant manager. She showed uncertainty of that title but made it clear that she was in charge, which came to me as a surprise since she observed me struggling to navigate the unprepared and chaotic environment for quite some time yet remained silent until that moment. She had an attitude and was very rude. She tried to make it seem like she expected me at an earlier time and claimed I was late. An obvious lie since I had called to confirm earlier that week and the day before. In fact, I was 30 minutes early. She was clearly mistaken and when I brought it to her attention she completely denied the possibility and acted as if I was being argumentative. She told me she would let the owner know what time I arrived and let him decide. Later, I discovered she told the owner that I was late. When I told him that was not correct he did not believe me and in doing so, I was implying that the assistant manager would lie to him which furthered his agitation with me. The assistant managers hostility amplified when she discovers I came from another store and continued throughout the day. I was expecting a professional environment but it was apparent that this location did not conduct itself in such a manner. I kept my head down and complied with her demands. She had me practice a very simple and mundane task in the back. She forced me to continue the same task for hours even after it was clear that I did not need to continue to practice this task. I complied until it became busy and they needed help in the front. As soon as I moved the AM started yelling at me to continue in the back or get out of the store. I complied but she still sent me home an hour early. She told me things ran differently there but she did not tell me how. After that I noticed that no one took there breaks. In fact, sometimes employees would get in trouble if they did. At one point, I was told that skipping breaks was a part of the job and I would have to comply if I wanted to keep my job. Most of the time, the schedule was organized intentionally to make breaks impossible. We had to wait for an opportunity to eat in between helping customers, when management was less likely to see. Forcing us to either extremely expedite our intake of food or eat a couple bites here and there out of fear of someone seeing. Nonetheless, I managed to impress the owner with my skills and work ethic. I was promoted to closing shift leader and spent less and less time around the senior staff. However, the culture and toxic environment affected every shift. At this point, I began contemplating if I should seek employment elsewhere but I felt a desire to stay committed and attempt to find a way to promote positive change. First, I tried to bring the details of the problematic conditions to the owner’s attention but this only created an extreme dislike for me and he started making my work life more difficult thereafter. At one point, I overheard the owner lying to a young and naive new employee about breaks and the law, at which I reacted by saying “oh you must be mistaken, that’s illegal.” The owner looked at me with a face of deep aggression. I knew I had made a serious mistake. After that, upper management went out of their way to make my job extremely difficult. The AM came to me and told me that I didn’t deserve the promotion and the owner only gave it to me because he was desperate. The owner had previously communicated with me that he was very satisfied with my work performance and what a relief it was to get a hardworking employee but after speaking out against the illegal break culture, his positive communication halted and his demeanor became crass. Shortly after this incident, I had fallen on difficult times that resulted in a few absences. During the eight months I had been with the company I had been sick on three separate occasions, had one family emergency, and took one personal day. I always informed management four to eight hours in advance when I was unable to attend work. The first two times I had gotten sick were right after I started my college classes and there were a few cold/flu outbreaks. The third time, I found out that I was pregnant and made the difficult decision to terminate. I needed an additional day to recover from the procedure but my request was rejected by management so I went into work the following day where I was forced into disclosing the details of my pregnancy and made to do work against my doctors’ orders while in excruciating pain as the AM watched with glee in her eyes. The family emergency was when I had to visit my father after he experienced a problem with his heart. Lastly, the personal day was when my teenage stepson had gone missing and was later located being treated for a serious injury in the emergency room. I did not want to disclose any information about my stepson but taking a day off for personal reasons was not enough for the owner and he constantly harassed me for more information. Terminating a pregnancy, my father’s heart problems, and the disappearance of my stepson all happened within a time frame that was less than 2 months and halfway through my first semester of college. The stress of my job had become exhausting and I was showing signs of fatigue. I was less focused at work and took a little more time to complete task then normal. However, I was still far from a bad employee. I organized a meeting with the manager to explain the slight decline in my performance and to ask her to help me regain my strength by promoting a positive work environment therefore reducing the amount of stress put on the companies shift leaders. She waited until the last minute to call the meeting and rushed through it. She shifted focus of the conversation away from the most important issues. She twisted the conversation to fit her agenda and my efforts were a waste. My attempt at communication back fired again. They started setting me up for failure almost every day after that. Every shift I had was understaffed and made up of the worst performing employees. I had to do most of the work almost entirely on my own. This affected the quality of service but, once again, management twisted the issues to be my fault. I did not know what to do anymore. I desperately asked coworkers for advice and they all verified my concerns but they all seemed to be scared to help me. The owner started being incredibly short with me, finding fault in everything I did, even when I performed exceptionally. Soon after, he began to scold me for things he would allow other employees to do. He kept me uninformed and then chastised me for not knowing something he never told me about. I kept my head down and just rolled with the punches at this point while searching for alternate employment. I contributed to the hire of a friend who performed exceptionally and could take over my position when I decided to leave. I had overcome personal stress and many disadvantages at work. My performance had improved back to a high level of excellence so the owner decided to initiate numerous counterproductive and problematic changes to the routine of the shift I operated. I complied, then he would get mad about issues that either contradicted previous demands or were never communicated in the first place. Suddenly popping up from nowhere and off the top of his head. He would ask for an explanation and then get mad at me for explaining. He would put me down and ignore my achievements. Other employees could leave at a moment’s notice or early every day, yet it was insisted that I stay late. Even more so if I expressed the need to leave on time because of time sensitive plans after work, they would try to get me to stay late. Some employees could come in late every day and it was flaunted in front of me. The process they took to terminate me was the most unprofessional, I was never given a verbal warning or write up for any work-related issues. They made an abrupt change to my schedule without notifying me. Scheduled me to come in early on a day that they knew I had been up till late the night before, forcing me to come in on four hours of sleep. They took away all my closes without explanation. The owner asked me for my store key and lied to me when I asked why. He said he needed it temporarily because he had lost his. Then a few days later, I was let go without an explanation.
Hello, I had a terrible experience at my last job and would like to know if I should pursue any legal action. I will explain my experience in brief detail. Prior to starting at this location, I had worked at another location for 5 months and then relocated so I didn’t require much training. I really enjoyed working there so when I had to move I decided to stay with the same company and inquired at the location closest to my new residence. The owner was happy to hear I had experience but the senior staff was not. My first day was a sign of things to come. The owner was not there and no one knew I was starting that day. The crew seemed distracted and frustrated by my presence. I was ignored by the first few employees I approached for direction until I asked a cluster of passing employees if I could speak to the manager. One girl then informed me that the manager wasn’t their but she was the assistant manager. She showed uncertainty of that title but made it clear that she was in charge, which came to me as a surprise since she observed me struggling to navigate the unprepared and chaotic environment for quite some time yet remained silent until that moment. She had an attitude and was very rude. She tried to make it seem like she expected me at an earlier time and claimed I was late. An obvious lie since I had called to confirm earlier that week and the day before. In fact, I was 30 minutes early. She was clearly mistaken and when I brought it to her attention she completely denied the possibility and acted as if I was being argumentative. She told me she would let the owner know what time I arrived and let him decide. Later, I discovered she told the owner that I was late. When I told him that was not correct he did not believe me and in doing so, I was implying that the assistant manager would lie to him which furthered his agitation with me. The assistant managers hostility amplified when she discovers I came from another store and continued throughout the day. I was expecting a professional environment but it was apparent that this location did not conduct itself in such a manner. I kept my head down and complied with her demands. She had me practice a very simple and mundane task in the back. She forced me to continue the same task for hours even after it was clear that I did not need to continue to practice this task. I complied until it became busy and they needed help in the front. As soon as I moved the AM started yelling at me to continue in the back or get out of the store. I complied but she still sent me home an hour early. She told me things ran differently there but she did not tell me how. After that I noticed that no one took there breaks. In fact, sometimes employees would get in trouble if they did. At one point, I was told that skipping breaks was a part of the job and I would have to comply if I wanted to keep my job. Most of the time, the schedule was organized intentionally to make breaks impossible. We had to wait for an opportunity to eat in between helping customers, when management was less likely to see. Forcing us to either extremely expedite our intake of food or eat a couple bites here and there out of fear of someone seeing. Nonetheless, I managed to impress the owner with my skills and work ethic. I was promoted to closing shift leader and spent less and less time around the senior staff. However, the culture and toxic environment affected every shift. At this point, I began contemplating if I should seek employment elsewhere but I felt a desire to stay committed and attempt to find a way to promote positive change. First, I tried to bring the details of the problematic conditions to the owner’s attention but this only created an extreme dislike for me and he started making my work life more difficult thereafter. At one point, I overheard the owner lying to a young and naive new employee about breaks and the law, at which I reacted by saying “oh you must be mistaken, that’s illegal.” The owner looked at me with a face of deep aggression. I knew I had made a serious mistake. After that, upper management went out of their way to make my job extremely difficult. The AM came to me and told me that I didn’t deserve the promotion and the owner only gave it to me because he was desperate. The owner had previously communicated with me that he was very satisfied with my work performance and what a relief it was to get a hardworking employee but after speaking out against the illegal break culture, his positive communication halted and his demeanor became crass. Shortly after this incident, I had fallen on difficult times that resulted in a few absences. During the eight months I had been with the company I had been sick on three separate occasions, had one family emergency, and took one personal day. I always informed management four to eight hours in advance when I was unable to attend work. The first two times I had gotten sick were right after I started my college classes and there were a few cold/flu outbreaks. The third time, I found out that I was pregnant and made the difficult decision to terminate. I needed an additional day to recover from the procedure but my request was rejected by management so I went into work the following day where I was forced into disclosing the details of my pregnancy and made to do work against my doctors’ orders while in excruciating pain as the AM watched with glee in her eyes. The family emergency was when I had to visit my father after he experienced a problem with his heart. Lastly, the personal day was when my teenage stepson had gone missing and was later located being treated for a serious injury in the emergency room. I did not want to disclose any information about my stepson but taking a day off for personal reasons was not enough for the owner and he constantly harassed me for more information. Terminating a pregnancy, my father’s heart problems, and the disappearance of my stepson all happened within a time frame that was less than 2 months and halfway through my first semester of college. The stress of my job had become exhausting and I was showing signs of fatigue. I was less focused at work and took a little more time to complete task then normal. However, I was still far from a bad employee. I organized a meeting with the manager to explain the slight decline in my performance and to ask her to help me regain my strength by promoting a positive work environment therefore reducing the amount of stress put on the companies shift leaders. She waited until the last minute to call the meeting and rushed through it. She shifted focus of the conversation away from the most important issues. She twisted the conversation to fit her agenda and my efforts were a waste. My attempt at communication back fired again. They started setting me up for failure almost every day after that. Every shift I had was understaffed and made up of the worst performing employees. I had to do most of the work almost entirely on my own. This affected the quality of service but, once again, management twisted the issues to be my fault. I did not know what to do anymore. I desperately asked coworkers for advice and they all verified my concerns but they all seemed to be scared to help me. The owner started being incredibly short with me, finding fault in everything I did, even when I performed exceptionally. Soon after, he began to scold me for things he would allow other employees to do. He kept me uninformed and then chastised me for not knowing something he never told me about. I kept my head down and just rolled with the punches at this point while searching for alternate employment. I contributed to the hire of a friend who performed exceptionally and could take over my position when I decided to leave. I had overcome personal stress and many disadvantages at work. My performance had improved back to a high level of excellence so the owner decided to initiate numerous counterproductive and problematic changes to the routine of the shift I operated. I complied, then he would get mad about issues that either contradicted previous demands or were never communicated in the first place. Suddenly popping up from nowhere and off the top of his head. He would ask for an explanation and then get mad at me for explaining. He would put me down and ignore my achievements. Other employees could leave at a moment’s notice or early every day, yet it was insisted that I stay late. Even more so if I expressed the need to leave on time because of time sensitive plans after work, they would try to get me to stay late. Some employees could come in late every day and it was flaunted in front of me. The process they took to terminate me was the most unprofessional, I was never given a verbal warning or write up for any work-related issues. They made an abrupt change to my schedule without notifying me. Scheduled me to come in early on a day that they knew I had been up till late the night before, forcing me to come in on four hours of sleep. They took away all my closes without explanation. The owner asked me for my store key and lied to me when I asked why. He said he needed it temporarily because he had lost his. Then a few days later, I was let go without an explanation.
Getting Fired: Do I Have a Retaliation Termination Case
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