I wasn't going to pursue this further, but people encouraged me to post online and get more feedback. If it seems like this might've been illegal, I plan on reaching out to an attorney that could hopefully work pro bono. Otherwise, thanks for reading my post.
Hey all. So I was recently fired from my job. It's been two weeks now, I've been processing the entire event and dealing with the shift. I worked as a geologist at an engineering firm in NM, where I was employed for 7 months. My time there was.. tumultuous in a way. The work environment was generally pretty toxic, I gave it plenty of chances, tried to shift my perspectives, etc but at the end of the day, I worked for someone who would get upset at me for asking questions, always giving me a very passive-aggressive attitude, rolling their eyes, explaining complex tasks once and expecting me to remember how to do them 3 months down the line, and was generally treated like an idiot. I guess it's a typical shitty boss.
In January, I was given a fairly positive yearly review, they gave me a development plan, and things were looking up, despite being treated fairly poorly. In February, my mistakes began to pile up (gee, I wonder if it had anything to do with being provided with virtually no guidance and not being encouraged to ask questions) and my boss sat me down for a talk, where he broke down some issues. I explained that the root of most of the issues he listed were a direct result of me being poorly trained by them and them having unrealistic expectations with regards to training (or their lack thereof). In that very meeting, I was told I was “bordering annoying” for asking “too many questions” on a regular basis, to which I responded with an apology and explained that I have ADHD and it makes me quite forgetful and that the added stress from not being confident in performing my tasks only exacerbated my symptoms. I think it's important to note here that when I was pulled into my boss' office, he himself said “don't worry, you're not in trouble”, I was never given any written warning, nothing.
I took the feedback from that meeting to heart and pushed even harder to be self-sufficient without their guidance, but I also pushed myself to keep asking questions, even when I was “being annoying” because I wanted to perform my job well. A couple of months go by and I start noticing they're treating me a bit differently. I'm suddenly getting requests about sticking to very unrealistic budgets, being told I've been making even more mistakes. I responded by telling them that none of the errors I was being called out on were ever even mentioned to me, I can confirm that because my coworker stated the same thing from their experience. But I guess that was more of a shared problem and not something directed towards me.
I was enrolled in training by the company and they started treating me very oddly. No mention of my training, no friendly reminders, strange responses when asking for official details, addresses, etc. It almost felt like they hoped I would forget. While I was at my training course, I noticed a job listing on indeed for my position. I called my boss and asked if we could discuss a few things and I brought up that I was still concerned about my performance and asked if I was in danger of being let go because all my classmates had confirmed testing dates following our training and I did not. He told me I was not in danger of being fired. I then brought up the job listing I came across and he denied it would be a replacement for me and said it would be for a different position, which did not make sense because they were already hounding me about sticking to budgets and them losing money, meanwhile they're hiring for an entirely new position? Seemed weird, but I took his word.
Fast forward about a month and I get sent away for a trip. On my own, managing a team in a remote location, I thought this was a great opportunity to shine. I handled the entire project very well, even finished early, did my best documenting, stayed under budget, and I felt confident. I get back and they tell me I'll only have two days of work the coming week – that was a shock, two days of work? I was used to maybe having a slow week with 32 hours, but two days was very odd, especially considering we were finishing a huge project and I knew they'd need me.
I could tell I was getting fired. They left me completely in the dark all week. I went in that Thursday and immediately got fired. Their reasoning was “differences in working style” and that I “wasn't a good fit” for the company. I mean, I definitely didn't fit in with their rigid culture but it felt odd that there was no mention of my performance or anything. I thanked them for the opportunity, politely let them know they dropped the ball on communication and training, grabbed my things (forgot all of my employment documents in my desk!), and left. There was no letter of termination, no written documentation as to why I was fired, nada. I just…left.
I found it quite interesting that about two months before I was let go, the state-funded reimbursement program they hired me through ended. That program came as a response to the unemployment from COVID and it reimbursed them for paying me; I was paid $21/hr and the state reimbursed them $15/hr, so they were effectively paying me $6/hr out of pocket, for 5 months (for a geologist, that's a sick deal on their end). That's right around when I was spoken to about sticking to budgets and even cutting testing from reports, which were already thin from their proposals. I'm wondering if I was fired because they could no longer afford to pay me once the program ended or simply got tired of my working style (aka my ADHD) and I'm unsure if any of that is of significance. I'm also not sure if they were supposed to at least offer accommodations for my ADHD after I told them about it, though it doesn't seem like that's their responsibility (had a few people tell me that they should've though).
So, to summarize:
I was fired with technically no previous warnings, no written warnings, no written reason for termination (other than the verbal reasoning that I wasn't a good fit), I was fired right after their state-funded program stopped reimbursing them for my pay, I disclosed having ADHD and they made no effort to make accommodations (not even in communicating), they denied me being in danger of being fired on a phone call I initiated and was fired about a month later.
I was under At-Will employment if that makes a difference.
So, what do you guys think? Do I have a case here?