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

[Publius6961]

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.

[wolfcreek]

I would have walked out right after security accosted me or at least immediately reported it to my super.

[Dog Gone]

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.

[roylene]

Maybe he did not get the memo.

[sweetliberty]

"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.

[MindBender26]

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.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

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.

[laceybrookesdad]

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.

[Rebelbase]

"What a jackass company."

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

[Galveston Grl]

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.

[GoBucks2002]

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.

[Larry Lucido]

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.