The article says nothing about whether she had received permission to take off work for the day after her husband's departure.
There's a possibility that she took the week off and then tried to call out sick for the extra day. That's an absolute no-no for a lot of companies.
I noted the mention of taking time to see him off and also not showing up the day after he had left. It seemed to me that she might have been pushing the limits a bit. I don't want to see a service member's family put-upon unfairly. I don't want to see some lady try to milk an excuse to the point of absurdity either. I think you've got a good chance of touching on the issue that actually cost her the job.
And exactly how far should a company go to accomodate a part time employee? Seems like they've been giving her plenty of time off in the past. This may have been the last straw.
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.
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.
So if she's telling the truth, it looks like the company was a bit harsh on her. Or it could be that she was a crappy employee and they were looking for an excuse to get rid of her.
Or maybe she said she was coming back on Monday, and didn't show. But came in on Tuesday.
And it could be she was the employee from hell too (OK, can you tell I've been a manager ;))
That's true...BUT...Did they have to call her up and leave a message to pick her things up? If there were other issues, they should have handled those at the time. You don't wait until her spouse is deployed and use that absense (time frame) as the excuse for whatever other reasons they had. If they were waiting for an excuse to fire her, they picked a bad one. Any bad publicity they earn on this one, they deserve.