advice

[Don Stugots]

<p>yesterday my chick (regina) opened an email from her boss that was sent to the entire department.&nbsp; it outlined a plan for everyone in the department for the rest of the year, when it got regina's name on the list is said &quot;between now and Oct. 1st Regina will be given her severents package in order to free up her salary as profit for the last quarter.&quot;&nbsp; the email continues back and forth between the department heads as&nbsp;to why she should stay and let go.</p><p>this is a company at which regina puts in a lot of hours and requires alot of travel.&nbsp; she has met each challenge and surprised people with what she can do.&nbsp;</p><p>the douchebags do not realize that they&nbsp;CCed her&nbsp;on each email.&nbsp; she is heartbroken needless to say.&nbsp; if she is let go at the last minute&nbsp;on 10/1 it would end up being two days after our wedding.&nbsp; she is thinking about just quitting&nbsp;but isnt sure due to the fact thay she can get the severants package and then get a job or just quitting out right.&nbsp; the worst of it is that they have been telling her that she is in line for&nbsp;a nice raise and promotion.&nbsp; meanwhile since she makes so little all of the bills and living expences are on me to take care of with now no end in sight.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p>

[JimBeam]

<p>Thats a shittty scenario finding out your gonna lose your job like that.</p><p>I was reading on Yahoo yesterday about a woman who rec'd a text message saying she was fired.</p><p>Surely she should stay as long as possible, the whole time looking for a new job, and then if she finds one she likes jump ship and if not hold on until she gets the severence package.</p><p>Might make it awkward being as she knows whats going on.</p><p>I can't belive they copied her and didn't know.</p><p>Shouldn't peoples careers and the like be discussed verbally so that the information isnt so black &amp; white.</p>

[Sleeves]

<p>Not to make light of it, but is it possibly a joke? <br /></p><p>If not...yikes...that's tough...If it were me, I'd go directly and quickly at the situation. Email the entire management group. Tell them that I was, unfortunately, included in this dialogue. That I understand their position and am willing to accept the severance. That I've enjoyed my experience with the company, but bear them no ill will, etc. </p><p>If this were me, and I wanted to stay with the company, this would be my play. Confront the situation, but not make a conflict out of it. Be bigger than the situation and expect nothing. </p><p>Good luck to yas! </p><p> </p><p> </p><p><br /></p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by Sleeves on 8-5-06 @ 3:39 PM</span>

[UnknownPD]

<p><font size="2">She quits...the severance package is out the window. Assume the email is correct and get the resume together; focus on finding a new job As hard as it may be she should not say anything to anyone about the email. Not even coworker friends. It will make it easier to let her go. </font></p>

[FezPaul]

<p><strong><font face="courier new,courier,monospace" size="2">She should forward the e-mail to all of her co-workers.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="courier new,courier,monospace" size="2">That way everyone will know what a bunch of ass-holes they are working for and the boss will be in an uncomfortable spot.</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="courier new,courier,monospace" size="2">Which would provide Regina&nbsp;with some revenge and entertainment.</font></strong></p>

[reeshy]

I would immedaitely contact a lawyer...sounds like a lawsuit!!!<br />

[JimBeam]

<p>Not having any real legal background I may be wrong is saying that she has no case.</p><p>What does she sue for ?</p><p>Accidenatally receving an email she wasnt supposed to get ?</p><p>Its not illegal to fire somebody and unless somwhere in that email they mention that they are firing her without cause the only problem was a lack of business protocol.</p><p>Eventuallu somebody, that was in the &quot; loop &quot; on that eamil, is gonna reread it and see her name and be like &quot; Ahem I think we may have screwed up &quot;.</p><p>Whats wierd is that each division head or whatever, who had to send a followup reply, didnt look to see who they were forwarding it to ?</p><p>I hate that at work when a manager/supervisor sends an email to several people saying something like &quot; make sure your GL balance sheet are saved before the end of the day &quot; and then you get a jackass who replies all and says &quot; I'm done &quot;</p>

[Don Stugots]

<p>thanks guys.&nbsp; meanwhile she is crying her eyes out and her bridal shower is in the morning.&nbsp; </p><p>i told her to ride it out to get the package out of them, unless a job comes in before.&nbsp; she may just take a temp gig for now until the honeymoon since we dont know if we are moving down to north carolina or not.&nbsp; </p>

[cougarjake13]

<strong>JimBeam</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Not having any real legal background I may be wrong is saying that she has no case.</p><p>What does she sue for ?</p><p>Accidenatally receving an email she wasnt supposed to get ?</p><p>Its not illegal to fire somebody and unless somwhere in that email they mention that they are firing her without cause the only problem was a lack of business protocol.</p><p>Eventuallu somebody, that was in the &quot; loop &quot; on that eamil, is gonna reread it and see her name and be like &quot; Ahem I think we may have screwed up &quot;.</p><p>Whats wierd is that each division head or whatever, who had to send a followup reply, didnt look to see who they were forwarding it to ?</p><p>I hate that at work when a manager/supervisor sends an email to several people saying something like &quot; make sure your GL balance sheet are saved before the end of the day &quot; and then you get a jackass who replies all and says &quot; I'm done &quot;</p><p>not sure if its illegal or not but to fire someone to make a profit in the last quarter doesnt sound like grounds for termination so maybe that's what she can sue for ... unlawful termination</p><p>definitely let her stay on long enought to get the severance, why pass up free money , you'll just be giving them more money in their pockets, fuck them and take their money and look for a new job while on their dime</p>

[FUNKMAN]

<p>stay and take the severance package. it should include usually 6 months of health benefits as well.&nbsp; in the meantime update your resume and just take a look around at the job market. if you feel you can land something 'very good' then give it a shot.</p><p>the reality is &quot;something that seems very good&quot; actually means nothing. working for a corporation you are just a figure in a budget and there really is no security for anyone.</p><p>if anyone knows me on this board they know i'll criticize and curse the corporate executives til next tuesday. i've kind of let up because i'm beating a dead horse PLUS i've been working for a corporation for 18 years now and the reality is nobody is holding a gun to my head to stay there. i get decent pay and decent benefits and i've grown comfortable. there is no such thing as loyalty though, in either direction. I work as hard as i&nbsp;need to for the 35 hours i'm there, get along with everyone and try to have a fun time while getting the work done, but when i'm out of there the job is the furthest thing from my mind...</p>

[Thebazile78]

<p>Dude, doesn't this place have an HR department?</p><p>Can you consult with a lawyer who specializes in Employment Law?</p><p>Not only are these douches discussing HR-type, secure issues, about an employee's future with the company, etc., over E-MAIL, which is notoriously non-secure, but they've also been fucking dotards who've BCC-ed your chick on every e-mail.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Tell her to print the messages, hold onto them in her account and forward them to her personal e-mail. Then set up a meeting with her HR partner.</p><p>If the company has no HR department, definitely call your local bar association for specialists in Employment Law. This is no way to find out about being fired and, who knows? It may be a great point for Regina to open a discussion with her managers to leverage an actual promotion. She just has to be prepared to stand up for herself, which is probably why these morons managed to BCC her in the first place.</p><p>Fuck anyone who thinks this might be a joke. This is human insensitivity and stupidity at its worst, whether they're serious or not. <br /> </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>We've been having a spate of firings and reorg's at my company over the past few months, so lots of folks are on edge and very paranoid. However, we do have an HR department there for us and the woman in our office who's responsible for our division isn't a complete idiot like the last one was. It's HR's responsibility to help you fight for your employment rights; definitely encourage her to take advantage of their presence and (alleged) expertise.&nbsp;</p>

[JimBeam]

<p>Is it &quot; a blessing in disguise &quot; that maybe she loses this job ?</p><p>You said earlier that she really doesnt make a lot of money there so maybe this is a chance for her to find something better for her and the both of you.</p><p>Where in NC are you guys looking to go ?</p>

[Recyclerz]

<strong>FUNKMAN</strong> wrote:<br /><p>stay and take the severance package. it should include usually 6 months of health benefits as well.&nbsp; in the meantime update your resume and just take a look around at the job market. if you feel you can land something 'very good' then give it a shot.</p><p>the reality is &quot;something that seems very good&quot; actually means nothing. working for a corporation you are just a figure in a budget and there really is no security for anyone.</p><p>if anyone knows me on this board they know i'll criticize and curse the corporate executives til next tuesday. i've kind of let up because i'm beating a dead horse PLUS i've been working for a corporation for 18 years now and the reality is nobody is holding a gun to my head to stay there. i get decent pay and decent benefits and i've grown comfortable. there is no such thing as loyalty though, in either direction. I work as hard as i&nbsp;need to for the 35 hours i'm there, get along with everyone and try to have a fun time while getting the work done, but when i'm out of there the job is the furthest thing from my mind...</p><p>I'll agree&nbsp; with Funkman's last two paragraphs 100% but would take a different view of the first.&nbsp; I'm not a lawyer but I work in the belly of the corporate beast and have had to learn something about HR law.&nbsp; NY is &quot;at will&quot; employment state and you can be fired for any stupid reason at any time they want unless you have an employment contract.&nbsp; You have a better chance at winning a suit if you're a member of a &quot;protected group&quot; (Old, minority, female, etc.) and can show a pattern of discrimination against that group. So young, hot females have a harder time&nbsp;winning a suit&nbsp;than old, used up ones, for example.</p><p>That being said she has been handed pocket aces in this situation.&nbsp; This would be my recommendation:&nbsp; </p><p>1. She has to come to terms with the fact her job is gone. </p><p>2. Print out multiple copies of the e-mail chain and try to save a copy electronically. </p><p>3. Go not to her supervisor but the head of the Department and confront him/her with the e-mail messages.&nbsp; Use the embarrassment to her advantage.&nbsp; You guys are looking at an &quot;enhanced&quot; severance package now! The standard package is way below what she can demand not to make a scene in the workplace.&nbsp;&nbsp;I would guess she's looking a paid vacation in the range of double the standard package at the bottom to her full salary through the end of the year (buh-bye profits!). She's needs to bust their balls (politely) but to hold out for the most she can get.&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;This is a unique opportunity to have the last laugh,&nbsp;job wise. Use it well.</p>

[patsopinion]

<p>I have fired/quit so many jobs that i wouldnt care but heres what i would do</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>stay,
take the money and put it towards a vaca.&nbsp; Have her have a job
lined up prior to severence, have her tell her inform her boss that she
got the email.&nbsp; </p><p>It is unethical for her not to tell she
got the email on her part.&nbsp; course it is unethical to tell a
person that they are getting a raise/promotion when they are in line
for the chopping block(excuse my lack of feeling during your tuff times)</p><p>on the plus side maybe she will get a less stressful job for more money.&nbsp; No job/ammount of money is worth crying over.&nbsp; But i dont have a morgage so.....<br />
</p>

[JimBeam]

<p>Yeah but while your HR person is &quot; working for you &quot; they are also being paid by the same company.</p><p>There's nothing at all against a company, especially a small one, from letting people go if they &quot; run out of money &quot;.</p><p>They might have misphrased it by saying they wanna keep her salary as profit.</p><p>Her salary wouldnt be classified as going against profit so even if they do free up that salary their sales havent gotten any better they just have one less expense.</p><p>Now there you might have some in appropriare business practices if they are over/under stating things that they report to external agencies.</p><p>But if they wanna fire her just because they no longer think her position is profitable they surely have that right.</p><p>They just have to follow whatever legal course of action they need to when terminating a person.</p>

[absinthe]

I'm not getting whether this is a&nbsp;large or small company.&nbsp; If it is a large company than I don't know if playing up the embarassment/making a scene card would work as it comes with the territory.&nbsp; A small company would be more affected.&nbsp; If you have any legal footing I would bring it up because most places would rather just give a better package than face a legal battle down the road.&nbsp; I would keep it quiet from the coworkers.&nbsp; This must suck, good luck.

[UnknownPD]

<p>I would immedaitely contact a lawyer...sounds like a lawsuit!!!</p><p><font size="2">Most lawyers will not take this kind of suit on a contigency so you'd have to come up with money to get started. More importantly it doesn't seem like there is any cause of action here. A mis-directed email is only important if it reveals some form of discrimination or illegal activity. This one doesn't. Forwarding it to everyone will just let them all know your head is on the chopping block. As a boss I can say its a lot easier to let someone go if they know its coming. </font></p><p><font size="2">By the way we are all assuming this was mis-directed. What if it wasn't a mistake, just an easy way to let someone know they're gone?</font></p>

[Don Stugots]

<strong>JimBeam</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Is it &quot; a blessing in disguise &quot; that maybe she loses this job ?</p><p>You said earlier that she really doesnt make a lot of money there so maybe this is a chance for her to find something better for her and the both of you.</p><p>Where in NC are you guys looking to go ?</p><p>we are looking to go to charlotte.&nbsp; we have friends there and want out of the NYC area.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>the company has an HR department on paper only.&nbsp; from she told me they will wait for her to come back from the honeymoon and wisk her into an office for a meeting at which she will be fired and then escorted out of the building by security.&nbsp; she said that this is how they work it.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>it is an international company.&nbsp; the emails even state that she has surpassed every challenge that they gave her and would require too much money to keep her.&nbsp; </p>

<span class=post_edited>This message was edited by STUGOTS1 on 8-5-06 @ 10:56 PM</span>

[FezPaul]

<strong>STUGOTS1</strong> wrote:<br /><strong>JimBeam</strong> wrote:<br /><p>Is it &quot; a blessing in disguise &quot; that maybe she loses this job ?</p><p>You said earlier that she really doesnt make a lot of money there so maybe this is a chance for her to find something better for her and the both of you.</p><p>Where in NC are you guys looking to go ?</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp; the emails even state that <strong>she has surpassed every challenge that they gave her</strong> and would require too much money to keep her.&nbsp; </p><p><strong><font face="courier new,courier,monospace" size="2">&quot;She's doing a great job, let's fire her.&quot;</font></strong></p><p><strong><font face="courier new,courier,monospace" size="2">What a bunch of ass-holes.</font></strong></p>

[Don Stugots]

<p>the worst thing is i cant get all the info out of her without her crying and i dont want her going to the shower in the morning with red, puffy eyes.&nbsp; </p><p>a great man once said &quot;this too shall pass.&quot;</p><p>this might be a blessing, we were kind of on the fench with the moving thing.&nbsp; for tuckas, the hang up was all the hard work that she has done here would be nothing, which turns out to be true but not because of her.&nbsp; if i find a job without us moving there i can go there and set up a place to live while she was here packing and getting paid still.&nbsp; </p>

[JimBeam]

<p>Good luck w/ it all but that would suck, almost more than sending her the email by accident, if they pull her into the office after returning from&nbsp;your honeymoon and fire her.</p><p>That's lame.</p>