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Throwing The Challenge Flag
My mother used to work at the local deli, and she loved her job and
her boss, who at the time was one of the sweetest women we knew.
Toward the end of 2009, my mother was having some difficulties – she
was stressed out, bills were piling up, and she couldn’t sleep. Yet
she still went to work every single day, never complained.
There’s a woman who works there who is addicted to some drug or
another; I’ve witnessed her come in and just sit down behind the
counter and stare at the wall. She always wears long sleeves, even in
summer; and she constantly takes days off and has even taken off in
the middle of shifts, leaving my mother or other workers alone to
deal with rush hour customers.
My mother took a day off after a fight with my father over money
issues; she wasn’t in the best of moods and knew she wouldn’t be able
to give customers the best service possible. Her boss said she
understood and that she’d schedule her for another day.
Three hours later, her boss calls. Tells her that she’s sorry, but
she has to let her go. We come to find out that she had her husband
drive by to see if my mother was at home or not. My mother went to
the doctor, and was not at home.
So my mother filed for unemployment; her boss challenged it, claiming
my mother quit all the sudden with no two week notice.
The story this woman spun about my mother – that she complained
constantly, that she said she hated the customers, the people she
worked with, that she never wore the uniform, that she was constantly
reporting off – was abominable, and my mother never received her
unemployment because she was unable to respond to it when asked to
contest.
That was four months ago. My mother is now happily employed by
another store, in a job she truly loves, and still, the druggie
continues to work at the deli. And she still continues to ditch.
11 Comments to Throwing The Challenge Flag
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As usual with a secondhand story, something is missing here. First of all, it’s hardly remarkable that your mom actually showed up for work every day despite being “stressed out” and not being able to sleep. That description fits half the American workforce.
Second, you don’t get to take a day off just because you had a fight with your spouse. Again, that would leave very little of the workforce showing up on any given day – spouses argue about money all the time. If you can only do your job when you’re in a good mood, you’re not employable. The boss must have thought your mom was so distraught that she’d be home in bed.
Finally, you don’t explain why your mother was “unable to respond” to the allegations made over the unemployment compensation. If mom was fired for cause (failure to show up), she doesn’t get unemployment. It’s possible you or your mom may have misunderstood. But it sounds like it worked out for the best anyway.
Are you sure you don’t mean mommy because this reads as if a child wrote it.
Your mother should have fought that to the end.
Which store does the druggie work at? I might not wanna shop there…
Your mom’s a basket case who couldn’t stand up for herself?
And the Trolls shall feast for some reason or another.
It’s a shame employers have to be so vicious to the nicer employees.
This story stinks. She called out of work after a fight with her husband? That’s ridiculous. Part of being a good employee is the ability to leave your personal issues at the door and switch gears to do your job properly. With the exception of serious family illnesses and deaths of loved ones, a “fight over money” is not a good reason to call out of work.
Also, she was “unable to respond”??? REALLY??? Her claim would have been easy to prove. Unless the boss could produce signed and dated disciplinary notices with regards to bad behavior at work and refusal to adhere to dress code, her case would have been sunk immediately. Not to mention that your mother should have pay stubs showing hours worked, which easily prove she did not call off “all the time” as her boss claimed. If an illness prohibited her from pulling together a rebuttal, why didn’t she file for an extension?
This is a case where she could have easily proven she was in the right. Not doing it says that there was more going on that was noted in this story.
So this is a story about your mother’s boss? You posted a story about your perception of your mother’s perception of events at her work?
That sounds completely reliable and accurate.
And by the way, I’m pretty knowledgeable on unemployment insurance, and I doubt an Administrative Law Judge would base their decision on only one side of the story – especially without any sort of proof that your mother resigned without notice. I would imagine there is much more to the story.
This is awful. Your poor mom. Did she have no recourse? From how dedicated she normally was, surely her boss would have known her well enough to realise that the other woman was telling lies about her?
Looks like the boss and the druggie deserve each other.
I know it’s easy to assume the other coworker was a druggie, with always wearing long sleeves, staring at the wall, and leaving randomly or taking days off all the time, but remember, when you assume, you make an ass of you and me. It’s unfortunate if the rest of the story is true and good that it worked out, but don’t judge someone by just those small details. The woman could have had a semi-serious medical condition that, while yes her behaviour seems strange, the boss wouldn’t have told anyone about, since it’s not really anybody’s business but her own.
@gjgjgj i think when the OP says “The story this woman spun about my mother” they are talking about the boss, not the so-called “druggie”, just to clear that up for you.