Read this post for background:
I ended up appealing to HR to at least get my reason for termination changed to…. something else. Something that I actually did. Unfortunately, they doubled down on the termination because I had manually altered my timesheets (something many people on my team had done from time to time and something I had never thought of as an issue or tried to hide).
Anyway I'm not fighting it anymore, but I just feel so lost and I'm really worried about my ability to be hired anywhere else, because if a future employer calls to ask about me, I'm afraid they'll say something like “he was fired for stealing from the company”. I've heard that it's illegal for them to do that, but I'm not 100% sure that's true, and even if it is illegal, it's not like I would ever be able to prove it was done/said. I've already applied to several jobs and I haven't heard anything back and it's just…. really discouraging. If anyone else has ever been through something like this and landed on their feet, I'd really appreciate any advice you have.