So a little background first. I've been working for this foundation repair company on and off for the last 3 years. They are really Petty people but I've kept the job because I have transportation problems and most of their work is right by my house. Anyway last week I saw that they were advertising on Facebook marketplace and decided to take the chance and message the boss's wife who posted the ad. She told me they still needed people and since I don't have anything else going on at the moment I decided to try to get my old job back.
After I messaged them over the weekend I received a message back. She told me that they would go ahead and hire me again for the season and gave me the address for the job site. I showed up for work on Monday and everything was cool the first day. (besides them complaining we left 3 minutes early). The second day at work the customers called and complained that their internet had been out at the end of the day and they thought we had something to do with it. The type of work we do is foundation repair and we never even touched any of the wires to their internet or anything like that. My boss's wife ended up telling us just to take the rest of the week off and that we would start a new job Monday.
I was cool with that but I told them that if it was an ongoing thing that I was going to have to find other work and apparently that set her off. My mom had a stroke earlier this year and I told her because of that I was responsible for paying a lot more of the bills since my dad has to take care of her a lot of days and can only work part-time I also told her I already had an interview for third shift at a different company on Monday the next week. I didn't make this threatening at all I just flat out told her what was going on with my family and that I needed as many hours as I could get so I didn't have to take a second job. She messaged me on Thursday and told me that I was fired for something I had did a year and a half ago. When I was working for the company a year and a half ago we had somebody quit on us due to the way they were treated and they couldn't find a replacement. I decided I didn't want to do the same amount of work as two people for the pay of one so I put up an advertisement on my own personal Facebook page trying to find somebody else to work with me. Anyway I was told that I was never authorized to place that ad even though they had promoted me to supervisor at that time. She told me that they were terminating my employment. I know for a fact that my boss gave me permission to post an advertisement on my page looking for somebody to help us so it just feels like they were fishing for a reason to fire me.
I've made these people thousands upon thousands of dollars over the years. I was responsible for finding them to other workers to help us on these jobs when they couldn't. I just think it's really messed up that they're treating me like this. I had equipment that I left at the job site before I got fired that they're refusing to let me come get it including a pretty expensive portable speaker and a dolly that is my own personal Dolly from my house. They also will not let me pick up my check today even though it is payday and they are paying their other employee. The other guy who works for them is a brown-noser who would work through his lunch break and through his other breaks so he won't even message me back because he's scared of them firing him I guess. All I know is I just want my speaker and my equipment from the house we were working at.
I'm a pretty laid-back person and haven't been known to be Petty but I'm going to try to find this company on Glassdoor and ream them in the review section. It's just really hurts my feelings thinking of how many times I've bailed them out when they've needed workers and how many times I've done the job of two people for one. I don't think I should have been treated like that just for sticking up for myself and telling them I would have to pick a different job if they didn't have work for me everyday during the week.
I just don't feel like I deserve to be treated like this. I looked up the labor laws in my state and apparently if you get terminated from your job the company you work for is supposed to either pay you the day they fire you or the next payday. I just don't know if I trust these people enough to send my payment in the mail and I don't know what other recourse I have. I already have other work lined up this week so I'm not that upset about the income loss it's just the principle of the matter for me. I'm done with this crap after today I'm going to try to get a different job but at the same time I'm filling out an application for disability. I have major anxiety and depression and this whole situation is only made it worse. I just love how these scumbag rich people like to say that young people don't like to work but when they actually do try to work the wealthy job owners treat us like s***. I've been a long time browser of the subreddit and I thought most people on here were just complaining and didn't understand how the job market works but after this experience im anti-work all the way.