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Fired for a "Quiet please, Work area" sign. Leagal recouse??

Posted on 12/03/2005 7:34:34 AM PST by aikido2kyu

Wanting to know if there are legal actions I can take.

To give you a little background first, my coworker and I are software engineers, contracting through an agency to a very large company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Coworker and I sit by the doorway into the hallway. It gets very very loud at times in the hallway with people talking and laughing.

There are times that Coworker and I cannot hear someone on the phone because it is that loud. We can't even talk to each other.

Coworker sent out an email asking if he and I could be moved away from the doorway. We haven't heard anything, so Mike printed up a couple of signs that said "Quiet please...people at work"

This afternoon, some guy that Coworker and I have never seen before comes over to the signs, and very angrily starts to tear the signs off. He comes over to us, stops at Coworker's desk, and asked, "Did you put these up?" Coworker says yes, he did, and starts to explain to this guy why he did it.

The guy interupts Coworker and says, "Don't do this again, we don't do these things here" in a very threatening tone of voice, while waving the signs in Coworker's face. Coworker again tries to explain that he sent out an email, that it gets loud, and the guy says "who gets loud?"

I answer him by saying "anyone who is standing by the doorway talking gets loud". The whole time, I just sat in my chair, and this sentance is the only thing I said.

Then Coworker again starts to tell him that the signs are just so that people realize that we are working and to try and keep it down. The guy then repeats, angrily, "talk to your supervisor about it, don't do this again, we don't do this here" He then walks away.

A few of the people around us come over and said things like, "oh my god, I can't believe how that guy acted."

About 20 minutes later, our Supervisor walks over and says, "I heard you had a confrontation". Coworker tells him what happened. Our Supervisor says that the guy is the head of security, told us that he had a bad temper, and that he was informed to get our badges and escort us out of the building.

I asked, "for tomorrow, or for good?" Our Supervisor said for good. He then said that he was going to have a meeting tomorrow after this guy had a chance to calm down to talk to him. He said that Coworker and I were doing good and important work for them, and that he would try to get us back on. I then left. This head of security treated us like children being scolded, never said who he was, and treated us in the most unprofessional manner that I've ever been treated.

The meeting was held, and the company said no, we can't come back to work.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: cincinnati; fired; help; ohio; workplace
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To: aikido2kyu
software engineers, contracting through an agency to a very large company in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Celebrate yor good fortune. I can't tell if the agency is ultimately responsible or the "very large company", but clearly, whoever it is is not long for the business world.

Every classic book on computer science and large programming projects, from the most scholarly to the pedestrian, emphasize the importance of quiet and lack of interruptions as essential for productivity. Not "nice to have" but essential.

Having a security type "run" a firm certainly sounds like a change of management is in order here. and soon.

Just find yourself a job at a real company. Really. I could not imagine working in such a place.

21 posted on 12/03/2005 8:33:14 AM PST by Publius6961 (The IQ of California voters is about 420........... .............cumulatively)
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To: aikido2kyu
I would have walked out right after security accosted me or at least immediately reported it to my super.
22 posted on 12/03/2005 8:38:23 AM PST by wolfcreek
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To: keat

Business history is littered with the remains of mighty companies that went out of business because of their stupidity. The downward spiral may take years, but nobody is too big to fail.


23 posted on 12/03/2005 8:43:33 AM PST by Dog Gone
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To: bert

Maybe he did not get the memo.


24 posted on 12/03/2005 8:48:51 AM PST by roylene
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To: keat
"I find signs, like the one Mike put up, to be petty and disruptive."

Huh? How so? Like one poster said, most people ignore them anyway. Our office gets very chaotic and it is overcrowded. Most of us have to share offices (lovely in a job that requires confidentiality). In our office we are actually issued signs for our doors. Of course, most people ignore them, so we usually just ask people to please move away from our door if we are on the phone or trying to concentrate on something and our coworkers are considerate enough to respect that.

25 posted on 12/03/2005 9:10:27 AM PST by sweetliberty (Stupidity should make you sterile.)
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To: aikido2kyu

Sorry, but you have no chance of prevailing legally.

You were/are and employee of the agency, not the company.

Right to work state.

What permanent damages can you prove. Getting yelled at, then fired, when you have three interviews lined up is not grounds for damages.


26 posted on 12/03/2005 9:41:10 AM PST by MindBender26 (Having my own CAR-15 in RVN meant never having to say I was sorry......)
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To: aikido2kyu
There are times that Coworker and I cannot hear someone on the phone because it is that loud. We can't even talk to each other.

My company routinely puts up signs that have the same effect as yours but are a bit more diplomatic:

"You are in a work area where people are conducting conversations and business with customers. Please conduct yourself accordingly. Thank you."

If the company isn't willing to go that small distance to make a comfortable work environment for you in the face of harassment by some tool with a quasi-badge, you're better off not working there.

27 posted on 12/03/2005 9:48:58 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts (This is my tagline. There are many like it but this one is mine.)
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To: aikido2kyu
I have a friend that was contracted out to the largest pharmaceutical company in Kentucky. He was placed in charge with the companies largest acquisition and was told if he was successful he could write his own ticket with the company. $60 million and three months later the day after the acquisition was complete the owner of the company called his supervisor while they both where in Chicago dotting I's and crossing T's. They immediately gave him a promotion and renewed his contract through January 2007 with serious talk of making him a partner. The following day while at the airport getting ready to fly back to Kentucky the owner of the company called and fired him over the phone. He was told that he received a sexual harassment charge from own of his employees and that there business relationship was over. Turns out the woman who accused him has had two other contractors fired in the past for the same reason. She was upset that she did not get the promotion and wildly accused my friend and he had no recourse. It's really sad that contractors can be treated so unfairly in today's workplace with all the laws that are in place to protect the employees rights. Knowing my friend and the type of workplace professionalism he ascribes to, I knew immediately that the charges were just not believable. Unfortunately he could do nothing but find another job. Lets hope that someday the laws will be changed to better protect not only the hired employee but also the contractor who is brought in short term.
28 posted on 12/03/2005 11:27:58 AM PST by laceybrookesdad (A happy marriage is a long conversation which always seems too short !)
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To: Dallas59; aikido2kyu

"What a jackass company."

Good time to name them, for the record, lest others be employed unaware.


29 posted on 12/03/2005 11:31:36 AM PST by Rebelbase (Food stamps, section-8, State paid Child support, etc. pay more than the min. wage.)
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To: aikido2kyu
As a temporary worker, don't you sign a contract with the employer? What does the contract say about firing you before the job is complete? Next time, make sure your employment contract has some economic protection for you.

It was irrational for this group to fire you and your co-worker and this kind of insane institutional culture is going to sink the company. If they have a board of directors, president, etc. write them a letter documenting your job, your progress and what happened - not to get your job back, but to inform them of the crazy nuts running the place. They need to know they have put people in power who are abusive and irrational to the point of harming the company.
30 posted on 12/03/2005 5:54:21 PM PST by Galveston Grl (Getting angry and abandoning power to the Democrats is not a choice.)
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To: keat; Dog Gone; aikido2kyu
If the "very large company in Cincinnati, Ohio" is the one I'm thinking of, I doubt they will be going out of business anytime soon.

If it's the two-named, soap company I am thinking of, they don't let their security guards dictate their personnel decisions.

31 posted on 12/17/2005 10:01:00 PM PST by GoBucks2002
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To: aikido2kyu

Yea. Do a good job for someone else. And don't look back. The best revenge is to live well.

Or, you can use aikido on them.


32 posted on 12/17/2005 10:11:16 PM PST by Larry Lucido
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