both my fiancé and I were fired today from the same place.
this is going to be a bit long, so bear with me. We both work at the same place in California.
Last Tuesday, we were out due to my father having a medical emergency. Friday, I tested positive for Covid and left with my partner early about 4 hours in.
I worked from home Monday while we were both off due to Covid, but he can’t work from home so he had the day off. We came in Tuesday, worked a full shift. Wednesday, after an hour into my shift, I passed out in the office. HR sent us to 3 emergency locations and then told us this was not covered from the company because it was not a work-related accident, so we ended up going to the emergency room that would be covered by our own insurance. The ER doc told me I was having complications with Covid, and stressed out, so to stay home. I got a doctor’s note for being out for 6 hours Wednesday, and for complete days off Thursday/Friday.
My partner had a fever flare up from Covid so he called out Thursday and since it had been less than 24 hrs with a fever, he called out Friday (today.)
Mind you, we have over 100 hours of sick time we never touch. We never take sick days so taking this much time off is unheard of for us.
I get a call at 5pm today, Friday, from the two CEOs saying they received from other employees there that I had been talking ill of other employees via group messages. I told them no, I haven’t, I would not do that. They kept repeating the question until finally I said maybe before I was a manager or when I was frustrated but I’ve always been mindful of my interactions with others as a manager. I asked if they were fabricated, they said no, but wouldn’t offer me proof. They terminated me and I felt like I got backed into a corner into saying what they wanted me to say, plus I did not feel well and had a note to be off work today.
My partner messaged one of them on Slack 5 hours later (we will call him Adam). He asked Adam if they had proof, and that this is really putting us in a hard place and we could lose our home. Adam said he had to sleep and my partner said he is lucky he can sleep with no worries about a roof over his head.
Pete, the other CEO, messaged my partner and said he is the point of contact going forward. My partner asked why, and he said “it’s me.”
My partner made a group message with both the CEOs and said no, I’m talking to both of you, I’m not talking to Pete alone and proceeded to again say how much we have done for the company and he wanted proof.
Pete said that since he didn’t listen to him, he is terminating him effectively immediately and they can mail his last check. My partner then sent two screenshots of other employees saying bad things in group messages and asked if they would be firing them too.
His slack was deactivated immediately.
So now here we are, both jobless and stressed. We work for a small company, have worked there 3 years, and they do shady stuff all the time. At one point there were rumors of tax evasion and that they have several businesses under their name so they can’t be found.
I’m really trying to grapple with what text messages they were shown because I can’t find any, and maybe I could have said something two years ago before I was a manager and before we had HR?
Idk- how does all this sound? I promise I won’t take anything as legal advice. I also feel like if they didn’t want to discuss it in the moment with my partner, they could’ve paused their slack notifications and revised it Monday.