TLDR; I got hired to do a job I was WILDLY under-qualified for, and it was work from home, I was fired from the job over the phone, and I asked at the end of the phone call if there was anything else I needed to do and HR said “No” then I immediately hung up. Now I have a company laptop, and I wonder if they can hold my last paycheck (in 3 days) until I return it?
Hey Everyone,
For legal reasons I am going to keep the details vague, but I worked in finance in a controlled substance industry.
I have been reading this sub for a long time, and I was definitely brainwashed to Puritan hard working standards, and I really appreciate everyone helping me show my worth and not putting too much into a job that will never care about me.
So, I was hired into a job as a temp, then as the company expanded, I was given more responsibility, and then I was offered a salary position, and then after about a month the owner of the company realized that my boss, and their boss, are complete idiots and have no idea what they are doing and started to crack down on the system we were working on to be more accurate.
Now, about half of my job in the time I was there (under a year) was fixing other people's mistakes (including my bosses) and making SOPs for those issues. I was definitely not paid enough for those things, but I want to own my own business and the skills I was learning would definitely help me long term. And they most assuredly did, I feel very confident in my own financing skills when it will come to my own business in the future. I never minded that, to be honest I do love a good challenge and a good puzzle, and it made me understand the process all that much more. But I think in my own very biased opinion that I was pretty adequate at the job.
As my manager and the supervisor try to create a working system, they don't communicate at all with me, or the other non manger workers of the section I worked in. Both of my bosses are some of the worst I have ever had, no confidence in themselves, constantly contradicting their own directions, never taking any responsibility for any mess ups on their part, cowards that refused to confront their own employees over any issue whatsoever. But they never expected much out of me and I kept my head down, so it never really affected me.
Up until about a week ago that is, when my manager calls me and starts very casual then horribly transitions into a “reprimand” that I struggle not to laugh at. I genuinely feel for people whom have fears of public speaking, and I am not making light of that at all, but when you are the boss, you ARE THE BOSS, and you cannot be afraid of me, someone whom lives many hours away and have never met in person. I barely had any respect for the two of them before then, it was completely vacant following that conversation.
My manager then follows up with an email that, were it on paper, I would not have been shocked to see it written in crayon. It was a very terrible and one sided view of my reprimand where they skipped over all the failures to train me even a little bit, or that I followed their directions to the letter, but that they told me the wrong thing to do.
I call HR and ask them what to do, they told me to request more training, which I did do, and that was the end of the work week, and none of my bosses responded at all, then the following work week, I get no feedback until the end of the day, where my manager pretty much tells me “you have been trained, I am right, you are wrong, do better or else”
I should point out here, I was far from a perfect employee, and had they reprimanded me for any of the things I did do, I would have raised no complaints. I was in the military, I have no problem being told I am wrong, and I will always own it. I stopped caring because they were throwing more and more work without any more compensation, so I just kept my work level the same, and I never did things incorrectly (unless I was told to of course) I would just not turn them in on time, because I am not working faster for the same amount of money. The great thing about this sub is, is that it made me realize that if I worked harder, I am just increasing the owner's profits with nothing myself to show for it.
I respond back with a lot of questions asking for clarification on various things, and no response for 3 days, then in the middle of the work day my email password gets changed. I get a phone call from my manager, and HR, they tell me I am fired for poor job performance (don't care anymore) I say ok anything I need to know? HR said “No” I then immediately hung up and filed for unemployment.
Now I have a company laptop, that they cannot actually prove I have, as I was never given the receipt (though I asked through email specifically) so it was never put into the system, and I never cared enough to raise a fuss about it. If they ask me for it I will absolutely give it back, if they ask, but the company is indescribably disorganized, I doubt they know I have it.
My last paycheck will be in 3 days (Friday September 30th) can they stop my paycheck if they don't even ask me for it?