Even the Daily Kos gets it right for once

[CARLHAYDEN]

Someone Help This Lady (Employment? Legal Representation?)
by lapin
Wed Oct 26, 2005 at 11:00:29 PM PDT
If you live near Caledonia, Michigan and have a job available, please consider offering it to Ms. Suzette Boler, who just got royally screwed by her coldhearted employer.


On Oct. 16 at an Army airfield in Indiana, Suzette Boler wrapped her arms around her husband and through tears wished him the best. Army Spc. Jerry Boler, 45, was bound for Fort Dix, N.J., and duty in Iraq. He expects to put his life on the line guarding convoys from insurgent attacks.

Suzette Boler, of Caledonia, returned home that Sunday night and prepared the next day to return to her receptionist job at a small Caledonia employee benefits firm. She had taken four unpaid days off to see her husband of 22 years off to war.

Late Monday afternoon, Boler, 40, answered the phone. She was told to come in the next day and pick up her things.

She was fired.


lapin's diary :: ::
So the coldhearted employer had this to say in it's defense:


Officials at Benefit Management Administrators Inc. confirmed Boler was fired for failing to show up for work the day after she bid goodbye to her husband.

"We gave her sufficient time to get back to work," said Clark Galloway, vice president of operations for Benefit Management.

"We are totally supportive of our troops and anything that is necessary to equip them and to encourage them as a company."



Yes, this is a private matter, and yes, we don't know the whole story.  The employer says it won't reveal Ms. Boler's personnel file even though she has authorized its release in writing.  Ms. Boler's prior employment was in truck stop management, where she worked her way up from wait staff; she was well regarded there prior to her departure to Benefit Management Administrators Inc.  She was fired from her $9 an hour, part time job to say goodbye to her husband who very well may not return from Iraq.  This is really unbelievable treatment, this person who has a right to be out of sorts, faced with the endangerment and potential loss of her spouse.  Read the whole article, make up your own mind, are these guys assholes or what?   

[dazzleman]

It's even better that she works for an employee benefits firm.

But let me play devil's advocate for a minute, with the caveat that I obviously don't know all the facts.

If a company is doing well and needs its employees (as opposed to being in a situation where it has to lay people off), the last thing it wants is to lose good employees.  I know this because I manage a number of people, and when somebody good leaves, it is a huge headache, both in terms of money and time spent, to replace the person and keep that person's function going smoothly in the meantime.  If anything, most companies err on the side of keeping bad employees around too long, as opposed to firing good employees for no good reason.

I also know that firms fire people for reasons other than the reasons that they give publicly.  While subjective evaluations can be challenged, concrete violation of policy cannot be, and firms that discharge people usually want to have the most concrete defense available.  Often, firms wait with baited breath for an employee they want to get rid for various subjective reasons to make a concrete breach of firm policy, in order to provide an opportunity for a clean break with the person.

As I said, I don't know the whole story, but I wouldn't be surprised to find that this company had some other reason for wanting to get rid of this woman.  Maybe they are just total jerks; there certainly are plenty of them out there.  I'd have to know the whole story to make a real judgment.

[CARLHAYDEN]

I agree that the full story is NOT known, BUT the ostensible reason given by the firm makes them look like a bunch of jerks.

I wonder how many contracts it will cost them?

Talk about stupid PR.

If the woman was REALLY fired for other reasons, then the employer looks dishonest, as well as stupid!

[dazzleman]

I agree that the full story is NOT known, BUT the ostensible reason given by the firm makes them look like a bunch of jerks.

I wonder how many contracts it will cost them?

Talk about stupid PR.

If the woman was REALLY fired for other reasons, then the employer looks dishonest, as well as stupid!

It was definitely not a good call, from a public relations perspective.

It's very hard to ever get to the real story in matters like this.  I have found that the ability of some people to delude themselves about their job performance is amazing, so when people are terminated, we always hear that they did a great job, but the employer had it out for them for some other reason.

But you're right -- whatever the reason is, it was not smart of them to give this reason.

[TheresNoMoney]

Daily Kos gets it right almost all of the time.

[A18]

Are they assholes? Maybe, but what does that have to do with anything?

[MODU]

If the 4 days unpaid leave was approved by management, she has a case.  However, if she took the days off without approval, they have the right for termination.  I have a feeling that the days were not approved, and the company considered her absense job abandonment.

[CARLHAYDEN]

Woman Sees Husband Off to Iraq, Gets Fired

Oct 26, 6:26 PM (ET)

CALEDONIA, Mich. (AP) - A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war with an Indiana National Guard unit has been fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure.

"It was a shock," said Suzette Boler, a 40-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three. "I was hurt. I felt abandoned by people I thought cared for me. I sat down on the floor and cried for probably two hours."

Officials at her former workplace, Benefit Management Administrators Inc., a Caledonia employee-benefits company, confirmed that Boler was dismissed when she didn't report to work the day after she said goodbye to her husband of 22 years.

"We gave her sufficient time to get back to work," Clark Galloway, vice president of operations for Benefit Management, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Wednesday.

He added that other factors were involved in the decision, but he declined to elaborate.

On Oct. 16, Boler went with her husband, Army Spc. Jerry Boler, 45, to an Indianapolis-area airfield, where he and others in his National Guard unit gathered to be transported to Fort Dix, N.J. The unit will soon be deployed to Iraq, where he will help guard convoys from insurgent attacks.

Although the Bolers moved to western Michigan 14 years ago, Jerry Boler, a diesel mechanic, decided to remain with his Bloomington, Ind.-based Guard unit, the 150th Field Artillery Regiment.

Suzette Boler had received permission to take off work the week leading up to her husband's departure. As a part-time employee at Benefit Management, she did not receive vacation pay and was not compensated for her time off.

She usually worked Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays answering telephones, entering claims information and greeting visitors and clients. Boler, who said she considers herself a reliable employee with good work habits, was employed at the company for 14 months and earned $9 per hour.

Boler recalled being asked, not ordered, to start back at her job Oct. 17, the day after her husband left. She told her bosses that she would try to return that day but if she could not, she would definitely be back Oct. 18, she said.

When Boler returned home from Indiana on the night of Oct. 16, a few hours after leaving her husband at the airfield, she said she felt drained by the emotional ordeal and decided to return to work Oct. 18.

But on the afternoon of Oct. 17, she received a call from work telling her to come in the following day and get her things because she was being fired. Her pink slip said the reason was she failed to show up for work Oct. 17, a Monday.

"If I had even an inkling that I would be fired for not coming in Monday, I would have been there," she said.
 -----

To repeat the key paragraph:

Suzette Boler had received permission to take off work the week leading up to her husband's departure. As a part-time employee at Benefit Management, she did not receive vacation pay and was not compensated for her time off.
 

[MODU]

She should have called the morning after returning to ask for the additional day off.

[CARLHAYDEN]

She did.

Read earlier material.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Typical Republican empty talk:

"We are totally supportive of our troops and anything that is necessary to equip them and to encourage them as a company."

Actions speak louder than words when you fire a soldier's wife, or you cut veteran's health care, or you don't give them enough body armour.

[Emsworth]

Typical Republican empty talk

How is the Republican Party related to this incident, in any way, shape, or form?

[Nation]

Typical Republican empty talk

How is the Republican Party related to this incident, in any way, shape, or form?

Obviously this company is what the Republican Party would be, if they were, you know, a Benefits Management company.

[KEmperor]

Typical Republican empty talk

How is the Republican Party related to this incident, in any way, shape, or form?

Obviously this company is what the Republican Party would be, if they were, you know, a Benefits Management company.

OMG BUSH TOLD THE COMPANY TO FIRE THE WOMAN AND THEY DID!!!!111!!!