long rant. TLDR; at end
I worked for a trucking company hauling metal roofing materials and metal coils. Our new trucks have a collision sensor on front that was extremely sensitive. You could be slowing down at a stop sign and the truck would think you weren’t slowing down fast enough (even if you were) and then slam automatically on the brakes to avoid an accident that wasn’t going to happen. On a good day, this would just damage thousands of dollars worth of product and damage company equipment. On a bad day this could cause the metal we haul to break free of it’s straps and go through the back of the cab, killing the driver (something that almost happened to two of my other coworkers on more than one occasion).
After about 5 events where I was nowhere near getting into an accident and calling my boss and her just telling me to deal with it ( btw: never have been in an accident /never even had a close call), I finally called the shop that we leased our trucks from and was given permission to unplug the sensor. The mechanic said that they get multiple calls a week about the sensors in this specific model alerting to false positives and to just unplug it.
After being given permission (I know, it wasn’t someone from my company giving me permission and that is sufficient grounds for termination), I unplugged the sensor and ran that way for 9 months.
Now some important context is that my company is always short staffed with drivers. They don’t pay enough and everyone typically leaves after a month or two. The only reason I was staying was so I could gain enough experience to go somewhere better. Every so often, about every 4-5 months, my company was able to snag enough drivers to be not completely short staffed and whenever this happened, they would start disciplining myself and the other drivers for things they never would have before when we were understaffed (like going more than 5 over, fueling up at a station that wasn’t preferred, or allowing a customer to sign their paperwork in the wrong place on the paper)
When they are staffed like this, we have discipline envelopes in our boxes all the time.
Fast forward to November 2nd, I get a call from my boss asking why I have a check engine light on in my truck (they can view that remotely)
I told her it was no big deal and that the light has been on for months now. She asked me if I knew the reason the light was on four and I told her the truth, that I had brought this problem to her attention many times and was able to find a resolution that would keep myself safe and save the company money. I was told that I had committed an infraction that was zero tolerance. My boss told me to plug the sensor back in and that they would call me tomorrow. The next day I got a call from my boss as well as her manager, eight days before my wedding, letting me know that I was being fired for the zero tolerance policy. That coming Monday I was only working two days and then the rest of that time until 18 November was unpaid time off. There was no reason they could not have fired me after my wedding but they chose to do so before it. Fast forward again, I am having a wonderful time on my honeymoon When out of the blue, one of my managers, the safety manager over all the drivers, texts me on her personal phone number that she wishes I had a good wedding and I am enjoying my honeymoon.
I’m absolutely flabbergasted and mad that these people would contact me for any other reason than offering me my job back. How should I respond? Should I respond at all?
I feel like a possible reason the manager is reaching out in the first place is because they feel guilty for what they did. I have no interest in making them feel better for doing such a shitty thing. I understand what I did was technically wrong but I was not going to place my life in danger and continue destroying company property which would have jeopardized my job anyway
TLDR; management fires me eight days before my wedding and then reaches out afterward to wish me a happy honeymoon