Abusive Employers (and unemployment)

[Alluveal]

So, my husband was fired by his boss on Friday. He sold insurance (auto, renters, fire, flood, etc).

Reason 1 for being fired: A woman called in wanting the "bare minimum" that the state required. That's what my husband gave her. He got chewed out because my husband was supposed to give her "roadside assistance" as well. That's not required by state law. It's an add-on. It costs extra for that.

My husband, "But, that's not required by the state."

Boss, "I don't give a shit. You can't take money from MY company like that. That's one of our 'house' rules." (A house rule that my husband did not know about. See #2 below.)

Reason 2 for being fired: My husband was constantly asking his boss for help with policies. Why? Because the motherfucker never trained him. As a matter of fact, my husband was thrown on the phone the first day and told to just start taking calls and to ASK questions as he went along. That's how he learned for 4 months.

The thing is, the boss would tell him one thing one day and another thing the other. So, whenever my husband wanted clarification, he was (again) yelled at. Called an idiot (numerous times). A "Fuckin idiot," more than a few times.

The employer promised to train him, to pay for him to go to a seminar and to get licensed. None of that happened. Each week my husband would say, "Hey, can I get some better training? I want to be able to do some of this on my own. I don't want to bother you all the time with questions. I want to get licensed." And every week the boss would say, "Yes, we'll spend some time together tomorrow. We'll get you trained. Get you specific training."

None of it happened. None of it. Ever. The boss kept saying he was too busy, or that my husband just needed to deal with how things were now. My husband would ask a question, or make a small mistake, and boom. He gets screamed at in front of employees and customers alike. Other employees would say, "Holy shit, he still hasn't trained you yet? WTF?"

So, yeah. I don't know if he has a leg to stand on here in claiming unemployment or in at least calling someone to investigate this asshole fuckface.

Anyway, maybe someone who knows more about labor stuffs has an idea.

[Xican]

I don't work in a standard field, so I don't know a whole lot about this sort of stuff, but I have to imagine at the very least he has grounds for wrongful termination suit. I'd also say a a harassment suit could be filed based on the various insults and degrading his boss did. Try contacting a local official about it, and see what they say. You'd be surprised how helpful they can be with stuff.

[calleagh]

lulu unemployment will take your husband's side and then contact the employer. if the former employer is full of shit he must have a written piece of "evidence" or some sort of documentation for his side to say this was a valid dismissal of husband.

good luck hon

[Taxious]

Your hubby's boss sounds like a bag of dicks.

[Alluveal]

He IS a bag of dicks. Little tiny smelly ones that never get hard.

So, yeah!

[Freecare Spiritwise]

In the Northwest, a "bag of Dicks" is always a good thing, because it means you have a bag of the yummiest burgers around. Maybe better than Fatburger or In-and-Out Burger in California. Certainly on par.

http://www.ddir.com/

[Ddrak]

In Oz he'd have an open-and-shut case. Wrongful dismissal absolutely (I'm pretty familiar with the "right" way to get rid of an under-performing employee and it ain't easy, involving a lot of documentation, objective performance reviews and the like), and possibly even down to assault charges if he worked it right.

In the US, you probably still have grounds though employee rights are way less. It certainly sounds like something worth pursuing, and if you make a claim it's highly likely he'll just pay out rather than be dragged through court. As usual though - when it smells like you have a case the best thing you can do is talk to a lawyer. They're actually paid to do this crap, and for wrongful dismissal a bunch will work pro-bono for a third of the settlement.

Dd

[Garrdor]

Here in Oregon, I won a wrongful termination case and got compensation.

Yeah, alot of employers/managers think they can get away with bullshit. Contact the state employment department, or when he applies for Unemployment benefits, make sure he tells them the whole story + get a phone conference if needed. He might have to get written testimonials from other staff/employees if they're gonna fight it.

I'm sorry it had to happen to your family. It happened to me - and though I was compensated in unemployment benefits - I still had a vengeful employer that made sure I was blacklisted to work for any of their affiliates (this whole valley i live in).

It can get messy.