RE: the boss checked my computer history and saw AF
April 23, 2016 at 1:46 pm
(This post was last modified: April 23, 2016 at 2:01 pm by KevinM1.)
(April 23, 2016 at 1:17 pm)drfuzzy Wrote: And fired me.
Yeah. I whined about her to you guys back at the end of February. http://atheistforums.org/thread-41803.html Despite having excellent attendance, attitude, work ethic, and all of the other stuff, she gave me a bad employee evaluation on Feb. 26. Her attitude towards me had changed abruptly mid-February - - prior to that, I thought that we were friends and made a good team.
March 31, we had another meeting, and she just said "I have a vision for this place, and you just don't fit."
I was stunned. I have never been fired from any job - ever! The HR Director had a meeting with us, and actually said to my boss then "you rated her as "excellent" on every point that we usually see: work ethic, attendance, attitude, accuracy, etc., and then you wrote that "she isn't a good fit for this office". HR is not her boss - I'm not even sure she has a boss, and there is no employee handbook, no job description - nothing. The HR people gave me a month's severance and are looking for another position in the organization for me, but they can't stop her. They let me resign.
Yesterday was my last day, and the boss left early. An IT guy (Adam) who has been a friend, came down to help me pack up and sign out. We got to my car, and he said "I know why she fired you." One day in mid-February, I was working in an upstairs office and had forgotten to lock my computer. Adam passed by the office door to hear my boss on the phone (probably talking to her husband) and heard "she had an ATHEIST website in her computer history! She has been posting atheist stuff when she should have been working!" He said "I wanted to warn you, but I didn't know how it would help. Be careful in your next job."
This is Kansas. There are no employee protections. You can be fired for being gay (I originally wondered if she saw the rainbow stripe on my car) or for being atheist, or Muslim, or Jewish - - there is no recourse. I just have to get busy applying for another job.
Thanks for listening, and if you're surfing AF at work - in the US, at least - be careful.
That sucks. All hope isn't lost, though. There are Federal laws that protect employees from discrimination as well (https://www.eeoc.gov/facts/qanda.html). It might be worthwhile to talk to a lawyer about what happened.
And, really, your boss opened herself up to a potential lawsuit without having anything legitimate to ding you on. That's what HR was trying to tell her in an oblique way when they questioned her about it.
EDIT: in other words, your boss had a legit beef with you doing personal web browsing, but since they didn't mark that in your record, and since everything else in your record was spotless, and since the reason for firing was about not fitting in (despite, again, nothing in your record demonstrating that), she's on shaky ground IMO.
"I was thirsty for everything, but blood wasn't my style" - Live, "Voodoo Lady"