So I worked as a research assistant for my alma mater's lab for about two years. Some shady stuff went on with my hour slowly getting less and then getting to zero for at least a year while I was still considered an employee. My hours went to zero suspiciously shortly after I filed a formal disability accommodations request with HR, and I had been socially pushed out of the loop and repeatedly ignored by multiple coworkers long before that. The for a long time while I had zero hours, I was getting paid a “COVID stipend” of about $22 a month and was told that I was now a “resource employee” and that they “couldn't find the right project for me to work on”. My coworkers did not have anywhere near zero hours and the place did not shut down at all for the pandemic and just moved everything online, as it's a dry lab.
The latest news is that one day, all of a sudden, after months of no longer getting the “COVID stipend”, I log into my Workday portal to see what's going on and now it says “terminated” next to my name. Everything had been wiped from my profile except my picture. I couldn't find an official termination date. My boss never emailed, called, or asked for a meeting to let me know I was going to be getting fired. I'm still on their Slack and still get their messages every single day and the lab appears quite active based on that. I'm debating on whether I should send them a surprise message after them not hearing from me in over a year.
I definitely plan on seeing what my legal options are, as I've been told that this would be called “constructive termination” in my state and that I might be able to get them for an ADA violation as well with enough luck.