I worked at a job for 11 months and did really well, never had any complaints, made a lot of money for the company. I accepted the position on a low salary because I was told everyone gets a huge bonus at the end of the fiscal year. Everyone talked about this bonus and it was supposed to be around $40k. The pay check before that one, I got hurt at work and had to go to the hospital but was fine, although it was a worker’s comp claim. The next day, I unexpectedly got let go because “they’re going a different direction.” Nothing I can do about that because VA is an at-will state, I’m just giving context here.
To back up some: 3 months into my employment, I took a fully remote job doing marketing (completely unrelated to the field in my first job.) I managed both jobs just fine but my boss at my first job didn’t know about it. It didn’t affect my work whatsoever and I didn’t think twice about it.
I just received an email today from my former employer stating that in my employment contract, I was supposed to not have another job and if so, I needed to get approval first to make sure there’s not a conflict of interest. I didn’t realize that was even in there but I sign it, so they are now asking for everything they paid me the last 11 months back.
Can they do this, is it legal? They said I have a week to respond. This would bankrupt me and hurt my entire family, who I support. I am sick over this and not sure what to do. I’m not sure how they even found out about my other job, but I suspect that I may have once logged into my personal email from my work computer, and they may have went through my emails, but I can’t prove that obviously.