I was hired almost exactly a year ago as a software developer but doing data scientist work. There are other data scientists on the team formally titled “data scientist.” Regardless, I did the same work as them.
Now the company is going through budget cuts and my manager, who has always hated me, is laying me off under the reason of budget cuts and that there’s no need for a software developer in the team.
After the first 3 months I’ve done 0 development work, I’ve been working in the capacity of a data scientist. And within the past year, other data scientists have been hired.
If my title were data scientist then the lay off process would be last in first out. The new hire would’ve been laid off. However, my manager used my title to his advantage and laid me off instead despite the fact that my title is just a nuance.
It’s obviously my manager took this nuance as an opportunity to lay me off. Do I have any legal standing here if my title meant nothing and I was actually a data scientist not a software developer?