Friday, October 07, 2011

The other.... OTHER F word... Fired.

I can honestly say I never thought I would ever be in this position. Zaq is a superstar among his peers when it comes to work. I have watched him come in and flip stores with Guitar Center... we traveled the country... the found our ticket back to Minneapolis with an awesome job offer from Best Buy... Perfect timing too, because we were DONE with California... Best Buy started out as such a great opportunity. But like most things, "all that shimmers in this world is sure to fade". All was manageable up until recently. Zaq had started talking about taking 3 weeks off when Ms. Rozzlyn makes her appearance... He had his sick time saved up... and we had some savings... so we were fine... and if something came up where we needed more time, thats why laws like FMLA exist... why not spend some time with baby as a family before the grueling 60 hour work weeks of the holidays begin... poor guy would blink and have a 3 month old before things get back to normal if he didn't. Well, I guess we should have taken some joking a little more seriously... Zaq did the right thing... He started talking to people who had been through maternity leave with Best Buy... One person - "its career suicide"... another person - "I had to take 10 weeks FMLA because of complications and when I came back it was never the same..." and another person... laughed and said, "I wouldn't do that if you want to keep your job." Well - Zaq came home and we talked about it and in the end said - there are laws that protect us from that, Im sure everyone was being dramatic... and if I had anything to say about it... I needed him home that 3 weeks to help with the baby so I could get RockerByeBaby back into a routine with a little baby mixed in. So it was done, 2 months ahead of time he went to his boss and the talked about all the details. Where he got a smart ass giggling comment of "well, then I'd have to replace ya"... shrugged it off, and the boss scheduled in his 3 week baby-cation. No big deal... so we thought. Almost immediately following this, everything started to change. His boss was being short & rude... negative... and constantly bringing Zaq down as if anything he did wasn't good enough. Now let me rewind for a second... Zaq is a "numbers guy" when it comes to stores... its always been his JOB to walk into an underperforming store and make it awesome... and he has been doing the same since he started with Best Buy... Bringing departments like MI & Geek Squad bigger and better than ever before. He hasn't had a single write up since starting with Best Buy... never a bad performance review... no reason to think that he should be being treated that way... To pile it all on, with all the holiday fun slowly creeping its way in to the store, it seemed like more than ever he had been coming home talking about all the crazy customer stories that were going on... Like the guy demanding to return a printer over a year old... and calling zaq a f*cking @$$hole because he wouldn't return it. Well, duh. The guy was holding the receipt in his hands that clearly stated 30 days to return... or the kid that wanted to return a lap top... the one that he "had no receipt for and paid cash for" but demanded a full refund... then told Zaq he would be waiting outside with his "boys" when he got off work. OOOH OOH OOOOOOH!! Or how about the time that some kid came and sat in the aisles of the store for over an hour... after being asked to move multiple times (all while ignoring everyone around him)... finally got up to leave when he friend came... then as Zaq was following them out... he stopped quick and lifted his fist as if he were going to punch Zaq... That was a fun story to hear too. There are OOOOH so many fun stories of where Zaq is getting harassed and poked and cussed at and demeaned... and never... ever... has he lost his cool with a customer, never cursed back, never raised a finger in a threatening face... with so many witnesses to stand behind him to say that... because he was always the guy to get called when a heated customer came in. Zaq was the guy to stand his ground for the company, but keep his cool. Apparently, until a 10 year old their walked into the store last week... The security cameras had picked up a young kid walking around with a PS game, then wandering into random departments... then all of a sudden - no game. A couple guys went and found the empty case, meaning the game was likely in his pocket... Zaq and a couple others went to talk to the kid and talk him into giving up the game. They said things like "give up the game and we won't call your parents. If you walk out with the game, we have to call the cops, your parents, and its gunna be way worse off" The worked on the kid for awhile, then his brother came over... *smacked him upside the head* and said "give them the game stupid!" and that was the end of it. Minimal drama, recovered game... success! Or not... that was just the beginning. Somewhere lost in translation... in the back office of BB, someone had asked how he got the game back... to which he laughed and said "I said give me the f*cking game"... aka - *Im in the protection of my office that I have heard WAY worse and more inappropriate things come out than the f-Bomb... And I am  not going over a 20 minute story about how i recovered a stolen game from a kid* Within a few days someone had filed a complaint with HR stating that Zaq had cursed at a customer... a child... and was now under investigation... two signed statements from witnesses there said he didn't... he wouldn't... and no way were the accusations true. Multiple other people stood up and said I have seen him in WAY worse, more heated customer arguments and he had never cursed... in my head - I was thinking about all the times he has yelled at me for slipping up in front of the kids... there was no way he would throw the f-Bomb around someone else's kid, let-alone in a threatening way. I along with many others, were sure the situation would be squashed, that was HR's job... to protect their company and employees after all, right? Well, I guess not. On Tuesday Zaq got a text from his boss to go into work at 1pm instead of 10am because there were 4 managers on, and they didn't need all that coverage... he said ok, great. "Have you heard anything from HR about the case" to which boss man sad no, not yet. On Wednesday, at 12:30 he left for his shift... at 1:10 my phone rang... it was Zaq. He had gotten fired... *crushed* Boss lied to him, he had found out he was being let go on Monday, and told him NO on Tuesday... Boss lied and said come in late because of coverage, but he had him come in late because they needed another Manager to be there to give him his paperwork and take his keys... Somehow... on a he said/she said case - with witnesses proving that Zaq didn't curse... he was fired. I couldn't believe it... there was no way this was happening. His "baby-cation" was supposed to start in 2 weeks. Our insurance now runs out at the end of the month... and oh yeah, MONEY!! We're gonna need that too. Why didn't we listen to all these people saying don't take the time off, you will get fired/replaced/canned/demoted/etc... WHY didn't we just say "hey, who needs baby time, keep working" I would be willing to personally stand behind that fact that my husband would still have his job right now. And, instead of watching him apply for jobs, I would be watching him get ready for work. I truly, honestly feel like they were just waiting for an opportunity to get him out of the way to have someone new trained in for Thanksgiving/Christmas. Watching my husband in all his years of retail management, I know how hard it is to fire someone. It takes statements, facts, write ups, performance reviews, etc. to put the wheels in motion to fire someone. And even then, they usually end up with written warnings and a slap on the wrist. After all, there was no CUSTOMER complaint... *because it didn't happen* but some pissed off employee gets to hold the lives of our family in their hands?  How is it possible that knowing all of this, he is fired. I have no idea...

So here we are... 3 days later, and its all starting to sink in... Im back to slaving away at the sewing machine, freaking about every order that I have to pass up because my baby will be here any day... I was supposed to get a break... I was supposed to get time home NOT WORKING with my new addition to our family... Now instead I get to work until I pop, then come home, and hand over my baby girl to my husband and get back to work to help keep our family afloat while Zaq looks for a new job. If you want to help out, please just share this post... tweet it, facebook it, whatever... We are not going down without a fight, thats for sure... and the more people that hear this story, hopefully more will stand up. This is unacceptable, and unfair... Best Buy, you'll be hearing from us. You don't mess with my family.

19 comments:

  1. You are not going to sit quiet and fight it, and that's the way it should go! I sure hope you can get some time to rest after Rozzlyn comes and that Zaq will find a job super quick!

    *hugs*

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  2. I really feel for you. Someone I worked with for over 3 years saw me clip another car with my car door when they were illegally parked, and not go and try to find out whose car it was. She reported me to the company we both worked for, saying I'd hit the other car 3 or 4 times, meaning to damage it, and they sacked me for gross misconduct. I appealed, and proved that I had not deliberately damaged the car. The company said "ok, it was an accident. But you're still fired". My eldest daughter lost her 6th birthday party because I couldn't pay for it after that. My family have no money and no way of making things better until I get job. It's like a bad joke crossed with bad dream. I really hope you guys get sorted - all the best from the UK!

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  3. UGH Best Buy, you suck!!!

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  4. I would find a good lawyer that will take this million dollar company to court. I would make sure to subpoena all the witnesses, especially the ones that told him about taking the time off and that being "career suicide".

    I can't stand best buy and I really hope you take them to the cleaners when it comes to a wrongful termination lawsuit.

    Good Luck!

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  5. Since the boss came out and said he would have to replace him when he asked for FMLA, you have a law suit here. Use his boss's joke against him like he did to you. They broke the LAW, now make them pay.

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  6. Sent you email on etsy

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  7. Ditto kaboogie! I am so sorry, I was recently fired for a bullshit reason, too. Fight it, fight it, fight it. You will clean them up and you deserve it.

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  8. This is what Best Buy does, sorry it happened to you :( I have seen things like this happen time and time again. They decide they don't want you or you get paid too much you will be terminatedone way or another guaranteed. Best of luck to you guys

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  9. Wow, that's horrible! Even if they believed the story, he should have just gotten a warning since he'd never done anything wrong before.

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  10. As a photographers and small business owners we can easily spend up to 10k a year in Best Buy. It was the go to place until I heard this. They will get no more business from us! Hang in there guys, I hope everything gets sorted out.

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  11. Bullshit. Sounds about right for a big corporation, though.
    Lawsuit. Seriously. Did anyone else hear the boss say "we'd have to replace you"?
    And, he is filing for unemployment, RIGHT?

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  12. Yep- unemployment is filed... Lawyer called, meeting on Wednesday. No witness to what boss said, they were in the office. But witnesses to stand against the FMLA thing. And two witnesses saying he didn't curse at the customer.

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  13. i had the same thing happen to me. I worked for Home Depot and I was with them for 2 years. I was put on bed rest so i had to go on maternity leave 2 months before schedule and then my daughter came a month early so I was on maternity leave for 2.5 months. When i came back I was back for 3 weeks and my daughter became deathly ill with meningitis and was hospitalized when she was 2 months old. She spent 8 weeks there and i stayed with her every sec. When she was released i could not immediately go back to work so they terminated me. There was nothing i could do because i used all of my FMLA when i was on maternity leave.

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  14. OMG... No matter how many times I hear a story like this, I am still not used to it! I hope this doesn't come out the wrong way, but it does make me feel better hearing the story and I want to thank you for sharing it.

    My husband has had jobs where he was picked out of the bunch and harassed..... pretty much ALL of them actually. He might have started out acting like a young butthead, but thats cause he was. Well, he is still a butthead, but the fact of the matter is he is an AMAZINGLY hard worker! He will work his a** off and do things the RIGHT way. He worked as an EMT in Los Angeles for a company running medi-cal fraud. He was treated poorly because he refused to commit the fraud himself on his paperwork. That company eventually fired him. Then, they lied to CHP and told them lies about his work ethic, to which lead my husband to have to voluntarily take himself out of the hiring process. :0( He got kicked out of LAPD's hiring process after over a year background investigation (they wanted him to have more work experience) reason being he didn't pass his oral psych with the excuse that he doesn't have integrity! 0_0 What!? MY Husband? Are you kidding me!?!? He would be the last person to take a bribe at work! Wow is all I can say there.

    Now, he is an MP in the Army National Guard. He follows the rules and alway has. He is strong as can be. He is trained like a squat member would be! ... BUT, he works less than $12/hr for a good security company. He works over 40 hours a week on the worst shift available. He gets treated poorly and with disrespect by both the lower and higher employees. He has even been told by one of the other Police officers (he works there parttime on top of his PD job) that he is more trained since he went through AIT with the Army for MP (military police).

    I just don't get it. I guess I understand the psychology of it all and why there are "bad" people.... but still, it shocks me everytime someone treats another person like this! I just can't get over it myself. :0/

    Excuse any typos... lol

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  15. I am glad he filed unemployment. I had to come back to see if you replied. I hope your lawyer thinks you have a case. It is absolutely ridiculous that these big corporations think they are above the law. Stick it to 'em the way they did you. I look forward to hearing you gouged them in court. :)

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  16. Me again. (last post) I shared on FB and my blog for you with my rant...
    Also, my husband is on unemployment as the USMC pushed him out after 16.5 years. 3.5 more years to retirement... I can't believe they changed our lives in an instant. They are doing this to more and more of our military as we can't afford retirement so they are getting pushed out one enlistment from retirement. It's awful.
    I have a special needs kid who has 4 therapy appointments every week and we no longer have insurance as of Oct. 17. I totally understand your frustration. I am right there with you... which is why I am angry for/with you.

    -xoxoxo-

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  17. Unfortunately there is such a thing as "at will" employment and anyone can be fired for no reason at all. Big companies with their big lawyers have policies in place that keep record of everything. I bet they have a laundry list of little things on every manager there just in case, like was late two minutes, inconsistent management, not to mention a slew of bitchy complaints from underlings who are over privileged, snot nosed, self entitled morons that all seem to have BAs and can't get those dream jobs that their mommies and daddies always told them they would just get handed when they were done with school. It sucks, but i can't imagine anything will really happen for you guys except a lengthy and expensive court case - count your blessings that it got you home and move on. Also, I might think again about naming the company in your blog - they might sue you for libel.

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  18. So sorry to hear what happened to you & your husband. I've had that happen, too. You wrote that you thought it might have been a setup to get rid of him and replace him with someone younger & cheaper. I've learned things like that happens a lot. Another reason could be because you were going to have another baby. That means you would use your insurance more, which costs them more money. I've been told that happens a lot - if a company thinks an employee is going to be sick for awhile & therefore go to the doctor's a lot, they try to get rid of them. This happened to me - I hurt my back and shortly thereafter was diagnosed with another illness. An attorney told me (off the record) that I was now a liability for the law firm where I'd been working for 4 years. Just like your husband, I'd always had good reviews, got along well with most everyone, but as soon as I got sick I started getting written up for things that had never happened.
    I know it doesn't help to pay your bills, but you're not alone!
    If you sue, be aware that they will dig into any online accounts/info you have, looking for anything they can find to make your husband look bad. Since I worked at a law firm, I've seen what they search for. Good luck!

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  19. Sorry to hear about all that, workplaces are filled with a$$holes :p What they did was so wrong.
    But I saw you wrote in another post that "everything happens for a reason" and it absolutely does! Stay positive beautiful and everything will work itself out!! You both enjoy that beautiful baby when she arrives and some perfect job will just land on Zaq's lap afterwards! xoxo

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