My friend has worked as a receptionist/office assistant for almost 2 years with a small healthcare company. Recently her adult son passed away, as well as her best friend (all in the last few months). Between all of this she has missed a 5 days of work (using her PTO over the course of the last few months) and has also been understandably sad but still doing her job and keeping caseload and all duties where they need to be.
She went into work today and her boss told her she was fired because she “wasn’t the right fit” for the job and she “can’t remember the last time she was there a full week” (which is bullshit, I have to drive past this office every day on my way to work and she’s always at work barring the last few months when she took two days off after her son died, 1 off when her car stopped working to buy a new car and 2 off when her friend died). My friend is a mess.
I’m trying to help her figure out her rights because she just left in shock and didn’t know what to say. She still has 2 weeks of PTO- does her boss have to pay that? She also wasn’t fired for misconduct so is she eligible for unemployment? Is texting good to do with her boss to ensure she gets her PTO? The boss is shady as hell so I could see her withholding her PTO if she thinks she can get away with it. She’s a shitty person and I’ve never liked her but I can’t believe this. She likes to claim the office is “like family”…and fires her “family” for taking their own PTO when family members/friends die. Nice.