Not sure if this is the right place to post this, but I just wanted to rant about how my now previous employer screwed me. Sorry for formatting, on mobile.
There was nothing leading up to this, completely out of the blue. I went into work Friday and was immediately called into a meeting my manager and supervisor. I knew something was off when I saw my manager had an hr rep on Skype for the meeting, but I just thought I was getting in trouble for phone use or something similarly silly.
She opened the meeting by looking at me and saying “So this meeting is to tell you you're terminated effective immediately. Your supervisor will walk you out when this meeting is over.”
I could feel my jaw literally drop and when I asked why she said there had been a sexual harassment complaint filed against me with witnesses. Now I work with my spouse and immediately asked if it was something I had said to her and was told no, my spouse was nowhere near the incident.
It's important to note that I am openly bisexual and no one seemed to have any problems with that. I have a friend I worked with, and we would joke to each other about being handsome and stuff like that but nothing too inappropriate. So naturally I thought someone had taken offense to two guys joking about theirs looks.
When I asked for details about the complaint I was told I couldn't get any details. The hr representative was not the one who handled the complaint, so he didn't have any details and my manager just refused to tell me anything. I was told to call the hr manager on Monday as she would have all the information and then they cut me off mid sentence so that they could end the meeting and walk me out.
Fast forward through a weekend of extreme stress and emotions to Monday. I have to call the hr manager three times before they pick up. When they answered and I asked for more details all I was told is that I allegedly made some comments to female coworkers as well as rubbed up against them and I was fired because they were uncomfortable working with me. I asked if the manager knew what I had allegedly said and they said “Yes I know but we're not going to talk about that”. When I asked if I would have a chance to defend myself I was just flat out told “No.”
Now I make it a point to be extra careful around female coworkers as I was falsely accused of inappropriate touching when I worked in a coffee shop on college. Thankfully then a proper investigation was conducted that proved my innocence, but it made me extra careful so as not to even accidentally be inappropriate. Having said that, there is very little chance I said something that could be considered sexual harassment and zero chance of inappropriate touching. There are one 4 female coworkers I ever interact with and they don't work close enough to me for there to be even accidental physical contact.
Well the call with the hr manager ended with no further information being given to me. I don't know who, what, when, or where about the complaint. Then, just 15 minutes after I get off the phone with the hr manager, I receive an email from the hr department telling me to cease and desist contacting employees about this matter.
The whole thing just seems fishy to me about how it was handled and my complete lack of information. It sucks because this was a decent paying job with a flexible schedule and semi decent benefits.
To anyone who made it this far, thank you for listening to my rant. I'm just so pissed, anxious, and depressed about the whole situation.
Edit: I have already contacted a lawyer and am going over my options. I'm just concerned, as weird as it sounds, that this is actually a concerted effort by a couple people to get me fired for some reason I'm unaware of. If it comes down to that it's going to be my word against theirs.