IL is at-will employment which means they don't need a reason to fire someone but I thought given the contract they need to at least let me know that I'm fired.
Long story short, when I got started working here I didn't get paid my first 2 weeks because I wasn't punching in. Which yes I know is my fault but there were several scans getting into the building security, and taking a shuttle so I wasn't worried about evidence of me being there. I ended up needing to ask for the missing hours and was told twice by the client that they were going to pay the agency and it could take up to 3 weeks to get (twice). 8 weeks after asking the first time I still had not received the money from the agency (and highly suspected that the client paid the agency but never gave me the money on the off chance they wouldn't have to). Its a complicated situation. They tried to get me(us) fired by making my brother take a drug test which he passed and I told them they had to pay me now. I got the feeling they had no intentions of paying me so I put in a wage complaint with the State. I did end up getting most of the money (my calculations about 500 dollars short still). I didn't feel like fighting for the rest of it because getting this much was already a pain. I knew they were going to try to fire me as soon as they could as this point.
Well another thing at work was they scheduled our meal breaks illegally late here. In IL, you're supposed to get a 20 minute(minimum) meal break that starts before the beginning the fifth hour. This is something I've learned at every other place I've been employed at. Our break is scheduled at 5 and half hours past our shift start. Sometime, they would make me stay later than that and it was not an option. I had to work for 6 hours before my break a couple times. And I get grumpy when I'm hungry. I figured if my employers wasn't going to pay me for my time worked I should at least get my meal break on time while they're not paying me.
Well a couple weeks later, I got sick on a Monday was feeling pretty bad. We work on Covid tests so the nurses says you're not supposed to work within 24 hrs of Covid symptoms. I did end up taking 2 days off for it and let them both know. On Wednesday, I went to work as usual and at the security gate, the receptionist told me that the agency wasn't letting me in. Which I knew obviously was a bad sign because they took my badge. They said that I need to call the agency and if they say I can come back I'll get my badge back. So I call the agency leave a message. I didn't get to talk to them until 2 days later on Friday. The woman from the agency told me they forgot I had Covid a couple weeks earlier (I did have Covid a few weeks earlier) and that it was a mistake and they were going to try to reopen the contract. Which to me was good news. But they never called me again. I haven't heard from them about it since. Its very frustrating for me because the opportunity where they were supposed to tell me I was fired I guess, they propped it up to seem like they were rehiring me. So technically it never feels like they fired me because they said they wanted to reopen it. It just shows to me how two faced employers can be. Thanks for reading the rant. Never did get my lunch break on time which would probably sounds petty to some people but that still bothers me too haha
TLDR Feels like I was wrongly terminated but was never explicitly told I was fired. More or less they hope I got the “message.”