Should you fire someone for not coming to work, when the reason they can’t come to work is because they are sick and in the hospital? When I was doing some research for my recent Wanna Get Fired? Do These 10 Things post I came across the story of a young Texan woman, Chelle, who was fired from her most recent job roughly five months ago. This is what happened in her words:
I applied for a position in August, and was called for an interview the very next day. The next week I was called back for a second interview to meet the team, ask any questions I wanted, and I guess to see if they thought I would be a good fit. I felt good about it, that is until the company started sending me all of these forms over e-mail saying, “Oh we forgot to have you sign this, or authorize this.” So I signed everything and faxed it back to them. After that was done, I didn’t hear from them for two months. Then one day I get an e-mail from the supervisor asking if I still wanted the job. I said yes, and she called and officially offered it to me. Two weeks later I started the job. And two weeks after that I fell ill, seriously ill, hospital ill. My mother had to call my new boss and say that I couldn’t come in, I was sick, and she didn’t know when I would be able to come back. A week later I was still in the hospital, and my mother went to my apartment to make sure everything was OK. She found a package at my door and brought it to me. It was a certified letter from the company stating that someone “claiming” to be my mother called and said I would be out indefinitely, and they wanted me to call them by a certain date to confirm this. Well, the day my mother went to my apartment was three days after that certain date. So she called the company’s HR department to let them know why I hadn’t called, and they refused to speak with her. A few days later, back at my apartment, there was another certified letter announcing my termination for not calling by that certain date. I was so angry. Up to that point, I had never been fired or even asked to resign. Why didn’t they call me? They had my cell phone number. I know because they called my cell phone to ask me for an interview and to offer me a job. Why on earth did they think a certified letter would be sufficient? The person “claiming” to be my mother told them I was sick and had been hospitalized. Wouldn’t it logically follow that a hospitalization might prevent me from receiving that letter? I’m still angry about it. I understand that an indefinitely absent employee is not a good thing, but come on. I’d rather have been offered the option to quit.
Chelle goes on to say her full recovery took several more months, and she is now in the early stages of a new job search. One of her struggles is some fairly significant gaps in employment. She was unemployed for four months, then got hired, only to quit that job before she had another one because she clashed with her boss. Then she got the job that she got fired from when she got sick. She picks up the story again.
How do I make my resume shine enough for employers to overlook that? I don’t want them to think I was fired from my previous job, but I don’t want to sound like I’m making excuses. I’m college educated. I should be able to do this. I send my resume out like crazy, but I can’t even get a call back. Being jobless makes me feel useless. I’m in my late 20s, and my parents are having to support me right now. It’s like the definition of loser.
So let’s break this down a bit. Are there any Staffing Talk readers who think Chelle should have been fired because of her inability come to work, regardless of the circumstances? Why? Or why not?
Let’s also get past the obvious. She was asked why she didn’t get an employment lawyer to go after the company for wrongful termination. Her reply, in so many words, was that she felt she didn’t have the emotional energy for a fight, that she instead wanted to focus on her recovery and finding a job, and not doing battle over what had already happened.
Thought I can’t say I have ever been in this circumstance, I do know what it’s like to not want to wallow in the negativity of the past, and instead just move on.
One woman commented on Chelle’s story, saying she was also from Texas, and finds it less than friendly in terms of worker rights.
You have my 100% sympathy in regard to your job loss. I live in Texas, also. This is the 3rd state I’ve lived & worked in, and it is the most disappointing of the three with regard to jobs & employee rights.
Even though I am ending here, this post is not meant to pick on Texas. After all, as Rick Perry and others have reminded us, the state leads the nation in recent job creation.
But if anyone wants to take on the Lone Star State, or support it, have at it.
As for Chelle, speak up – or out – for her as well, since she was apparently unable to on her own behalf. I mean, why didn’t she use the cell phone she said she had in the hospital and have a conversation with her employer herself? Why did she let it go on as long as it did?
Oh well, your turn.
{ 14 comments… read them below or add one }
I am curious why she didn’t call the employer herself. If she was capable of receiving a call, then she was capable of making one, right? Just to disappear like that looks very suspicious. And having your mom call for you looks very weak. Maybe I’m just a heartless prick.
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I agree with Erik. It is the responsibility of the EMPLOYEE to maintain contact with their employer, especially if they somehow expect to keep their job. A company should not have to hunt an employee down.
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Texan employers work hard to recruit and retain great workers. We go out of our way to treat people respectfully because that’s just good business. We fire people like Chelle because good workers want to work with other good workers.
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Thanks for your comment Erik. I barely got the post published before your comment showed up. You read fast!
I have to admit I first got really sucked in to Chelle’s story and did totally feel sorry for her. Her story is a tough deal regardless.
But the more I thought about it, the more I realized she bears some culpability. She really wasn’t proactive here at all. She let her mom do her talking for her, like some school kid, and never had a direct conversation with her employer at all.
I don’t know the nature of her illness, but it sounds as if she was conscious and cognizant, even if she wasn’t ambulatory, and there really is no excuse for not attempting to have an actual conversation with her employer. Perhaps the result would have been different.
Hey David, I can promise you the result would have been different. Companies don’t just fire people for getting legimitately sick. Sounds like someone has gotten good at being a victim.
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I think she bears the burden of this situation. While I understand perhaps the first day having her mother call, it is incomprehensible to me that a college educated woman didn’t have the ability to look at her situation from the employers point of view. She didn’t call, she didn’t follow up with an update on her situation, she didn’t keep them informed and then complains that they sent her a certified letter, a must for notifying employees of pending employment changes. It is entirely possible that the HR department who was handling the paperwork did not have her cell number and relied on her home number for contact.
Another concern I have is that she was separated from a prior job for not getting along with the boss. Usually, not always, there is shared responsibility in being unable to get along with another person – boss, co-workers, family members, etc. This sends up another red flag.
If she, in fact, did not start to work for the last employer, I would probably not list them as a previous employer. She doesn’t need to put herself in the position of explaining this situation to another person. Beyond that, I am sure she has some very good reasons for her sketchy work history and should be able to satisfy an interviewer.
Additionally, I have to comment on those people who suggested consulting an attorney. All I have to say is that if the company is blatantly breaking a law, i.e. discrimination, sexual harassment, etc., contact an attorney. Other than that, my advice is to get over it and get on with your life. The job didn’t work out….get over it. A boy/girlfriend didn’t work out…get over it. This is part of living and isn’t a reason to sue someone or spend an enormous emotional investment in retribution. That mentality is one that has caused employers to distance themselves from their employees and consider doing business outside of the US.
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I’m not sure about the details of HR Law in Texas, although I’ve heard enough to envy them. In California, were I in the HR Department at the company Chelle worked for, I would have gone a different route.
After three days of an employee not reporting to work and not hearing from the employee, it is considered job abandonment. As others have mentioned, having Mom call may suffice for an initial contact, but just as I can’t share employment information with Mom, I can’t be expected to interact with Mom regarding ongoing absence issues. After three days, I would have sent her final paycheck and a letter via registered mail indicating that due to her extended unexcused absence and lack of contact we considered her to have abandoned her job and resigned her position.
From a sick employees viewpoint this may seem cold, however attendance policies are put in place to protect both the company and the employees: The work of an absent employee must still be completed; either by increasing the workload of the co-workers, or by bringing on a temporary employee.
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Sounds to me like both Chelle and her employer could have handled the situation better. The difference: Chelle showed poor judgement . Her employer showed poor judgment and may have broken the law by voilating her rights.
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I agree Mark, I do think both parties could have handled this better. It’s a nice little case study though, huh?
Steven and Liz, thank you so much for your thoughtful – and thorough – responses.
Both of your comments would make worthy posts in and of themselves. I hope our readers are paying attention, because they are getting some nice tutorials on a couple of fronts.
When I first read this story I thought it might make good fodder for discussion. Glad to see I was right. Let’s keep it going. There are bound to be some more lessons learned here.
She states “why on earth did they think a certified letter would be suffiicient?” I’d like to know why on earth she thought that having her Mother continue to contact her employer beyond the first day of emergency, would be sufficient?
She also goes on to talk about what she felt would be “logical” with regard to her employer’s handling of the situation yet, that logic doesn’t pertain to her own behavior in handling it. If she was able to converse with her Mother regarding all that was happening while she was in the hospital, wouldn’t logic also conclude that she was capable of conversing with her employer?
Sounds to me like she doesn’t want to take responsibility for herself or her own actions and choices and would prefer that everyone go along with that view of events surrounding what happened with that job.
I did note, Mr. Gee- your little slam on Rick Perry (“After all”) Did the discussion of this situation have anything to do with politics?
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I totally agree with your assessment of this Lisa. I think it’s clear that Chelle, as unfortunate as her illness was, simply did not do enough to keep her job, and is not doing enough to take responsibility in the wake of losing it.
As for whether this post had any particular political slant to it, the short – and truthful – answer is no.
You are correct that I did slip in a little dig directed at Governor Perry. I did that for only one reason. Virtually his entire platform for his presidential run was based on job creation, that over one million jobs were created on his watch, etc. It has been well established that while that fact is true, Perry’s record is part of a long-term trend, and that the state has done well in the jobs department for decades.
“This point goes neglected,” says Bernard L. Weinstein, professor of business economics in the Cox School of Business at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. “Yes, ‘Texas has created more jobs than any other state’ in the last two years. But that’s been true since 1970. For the last 41 years Texas has added more jobs than any other state, and in most years, has led the nation in job creation. So Gov. Perry can claim that these jobs were created on his watch, but they were created on everybody else’s watch too.”
It’s kind of a moot point since Perry dropped out of the race. And my slightly shaded remark had no real reason to be in my story. Thanks for the comment, and for calling me out!
re Perry comment…
Gee David (i bet people say that to you a lot David Gee) I’m glad at least you didn’t apologize. The Perry remark had every reason to be in the story. It livened it up.
People do wonder why Texas leads in job creation. Is it the work of a single politician? Or decades of pro-business policy regardless of which party was in power? Or something else?
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Sorry Gregg, I guess I’m okay with the discussion of a topic on its own merits and don’t need any unrelated political rhetoric to liven it up.
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Yes, Gregg, thanks for noticing my nuanced response. And I did stop short of apologizing, though I will state again here this was an HR story, having to do with the behavior of employer and employee, and not a political one.
You do raise some interesting questions though. What is it about Texas and job creation? Why does the Lone Star State lead the nation in this area? Is it simply a case of an abundance of certain natural resources, or is it something else?
I won’t attempt to answer that here, but maybe I will in a future Staffing Talk post.