Forced to sign a resignation letter !
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I am a datawarehouse developer and used to work for this manager (S) and he gave me an exceptional review this year. Actually the company advertised my position for six months and eventually he hired me. He was very happy with my performance ever since.
Then there is an organizational changes in April. My manager (S) got a promotion becoming the director of BI. There is another guy (T) becoming my mananger. I work as the way I always work. However no matter what I did, T was not happy. He made me do it over and over again. He does not understand the data warehouse. Every time the user requested a change in the DW, he thought it was a piece of cake. I tried to explain to him it was not that simple and he kept his own opinion. It was his way or no way. I found out at his old company, the people at his department did not like him and called him an asshole. Now I knew why. He thought he was very good and he was arrogant. Actually when I looked at his database design and codes, they were terrible. He works at this company for several years, involving in the ELT portion of the data warehouse. However he knew little about the DW. This told me he just cared about getting his job done and did not like to learn or try to improve himself.
My old manager (S) now becomes the director sides with him. Lately I am diagnosed with a rare disease that my immuse system attacking my lung, I had pneumonia twice in a month. However while I had pneumonia, they still called me at home and got something done. I did it because I thought I was doing for the company.
My workload lately increase a lot. I work from 10 hours to 14 hours a day. T kept giving me more and more things to do. I don't know if he wanted me to get rid of me so he kept giving me a hard time or he got this from my old boss S. Physically and mentally I could not handle it. So I tried to talk to S and if they want me out and let me know. In the meantime my doctor thinks my condition is not getting better so he suggested I take short term disability.
Yesterday morning I talked to the HR and asked about how to file short term disability. At 5:00pm S and the HR manager pulled me into a conference room and asked me to sign a resignation letter that I would be leaving the company in a month. I was stunned.
I told the HR manager that I just filed a short term disability. She said she would look into that. However I felt betrayed by S after all I did for the company. I was very upset. I went to the CEO and told him what happened. Maybe it was a wrong move, but I wanted someone up there to find out things are not going well. I did not care about the outcome but since I am sick and they forced me to resign and I felt it was not right and unfair.
What am I going to do? Did I do the right thing? I did not want to burn any bridge but they left me no choice. Fortunately S just moved here from Minnesota and T is working remotely at Indiana so most of the recruiters did not know them.
I am working with a couple recruiters now to look for a job. I have a good reputation here.
Telling the CEO was just my way to let them know they could not treat me liked I was nothing.
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The first tip off that something was wrong, was your statement in the second paragraph, 'I work as the way I always work.' It is always part of your job to obtain 'clear' direction from your immediate supervisor. If that's not feasible, then it's time to question whether there is a communication problem, or if it's something else. In this situation, it's clearly something else.
Second thing - you waited waaaay too long to involve HR. They have to protect the corporate interests, but you made their job harder by not alerting them to the situation.
Third thing - why would they ask you to sign a resignation letter? Can't they simply fire you? What about your benefits - medical insurance, etc etc. DON'T SIGN THE LETTER. If you did, go see a labor lawyer. Today. You need to document that you signed the letter under duress. But if you haven't signed it, DON'T. They want to use the letter to prevent you from collecting unemployment benefits, from future medical benefits, etc etc. It's all money - nothing to do with people.
Going to the CEO will force you to leave the company. But you don't have to do it on their timing - if you have to leave, you need to get well first. Or go on permanent disability on their nickle, not your own.
How large a company is this? 30 employees? 200? 5000? I assume it can't be too large if you had such convenient access to the CEO - in many very large companies you would not work in the same building with the CEO.
Your new boss is politically very savvy - you've become his latest 'most wanted' victim to cover his failings. You cannot hope to match his political cleverness, but you can try to protect yourself.
1. Take time now to document, as accurately as you can, the chronology you described in this post. Do this at home, on your private computer. DO NOT DO THIS AT WORK.
2. Identify whatever corroborating emails or other documents (system logs, etc) to support your chronology. You are not building a he said/she said file, but simply looking to prove what you say is true. Opinion content should be kept to a bare minimum (e.g., you said above "Actually when I looked at his database design and codes, they were terrible." That may be true, but it's only opinion, unless you can demonstrate that when they were implemented, they failed. That's proof.
3. Talk to HR about how it's obvious that you and your present boss don't get along. Ask them how it is, given your past outstanding review(s) with the company, that they now want to eliminate you, rather than fixing what is clearly a bad chemistry between you and your boss. Why would they want to waste what you've learned working in the company? (This should be done without your supervisor being present)
4. Are you in a union environment? The request to have you sign a letter of resignation stinks to high heaven. You should be asking about what the corporate procedures are - they are not meant to be a magical secret. If your HR contact refuses to share, your ONLY response is that you are trying to follow the rules, but you are now in a setting where you no longer know what the rules are. ALWAYS present yourself now as trying to support the company, while in reality you are looking to protect yourself. But your best protection now is to try and convince them that you are allied with the company, not fighting it. Just because you and your boss don't get along, does not mean you cannot make a meaningful contribution to your employer.
5. DO NOT TALK ABOUT YOUR SITUATION TO ANYONE AT WORK OTHER THAN HR (or the CEO).
6. Compile a list of your accomplishments at this company. You may need to become self-promoting - you, ideally, would want them to really miss you when you walk out the door. And, sadly, yes, you do have to walk out the door. But you want that halo around your head to be untarnished as you go, despite your current boss.
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I tend to link what Steve has said above and I agree. Don't sign the letter. At the very least if they fire you the unemployment comes into play.
I'm not sure that the CEO will make you leave. Sometimes you find A hired B because they went to college or their wives did or something and the CEO has no idea. Most likely the CEO will side with them, but he may be more conservative and not want to have a lawsuit filed.
Document what you can, including illnesses. Document work done or not done, and definitely work with HR. It's probably time to find another job, but don't let yourself get pushed out easily.
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Actually I was talking to the CIO not CEO. The company is over 5000 employees. It just made the fortunate 500 list.
I was stunned by asking me signing the letter so I signed it without thinking, then later I thought I was so stupid. That was the reason why I went to the CIO and told him that I signed the letter under pressure because at this point I did not trust my boss and I did not trust the HR manager and I had nowhere to go and no one could help me. I did not tell anyone else in the company.
When I talked to HR in the morning about short term disability, that lady told me diectly filed the disability claim to the insurance company and I did so it had my record.
When my boss and the HR manager told me to sign the letter, I told the HR manager that I was going on disability because I was sick. She did not know anything about that. She told me to get a letter from the doctor and she would tell the insurance company. At this point, I don't trust anyone anymore, so I would give her the letter but the insurance company already had my record. God knows if she would just throw the letter into the recycle bin.
Today my boss just talked to me liked nothing happened. I trusted him and I was so naive. I was so dump !!
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They could not fire me because I could sue them since I did not do anything wrong. Maybe that was the reason why they wanted me to resign.
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In most states, that is not the case. Unless you have an employment contract, generally speaking, most employment is "at will", meaning an employer can fire you at any time, for any reason, with or without cause. I agree with the above statements that you NEED to get a labor lawyer involved. I'm sorry to hear that, in this day and age, behavior like this still goes on... best of luck to you, in both your employment and your health issues.
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The probable reason for wanting you resign is so you can't collect unemployment. If they lay you off or fire you without cause, you would be eligible to collect unemployment. If you leave on your own, you can't.
Even though the state pays the claim, their unemployment insurance rates go up or down, depending on the number of unemployment claims for the company.
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Loner,
I am really sorry to hear this, in development if you are willing to move there are many jobs but if money is not an issue take sometime for yourself before the next position to clear out the anger. When people are cruel just move on, I would not waste time and money to sue them however see if a lawyer can help you get unemployment benefits go for it.
Kind regards,
Gift Peddie -
I am really sorry to hear this. But, please make sure that you do your best as long as you are at work. NEVER EVER trust HR and they protect only the management. In the meantime, due to your health reasons, you can expand your network to look for contracting/telecommute jobs from http://www.guru.com OR google for Datawarehouse jobs. Hope you should be able find it easily. But don't resign on your own. Take them to the court.
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Does US law offer any protection from Constructive Dismissal (process of forcing a employeee to resign when that employee otherwise would not have done so without the pressure from the employing organisation)?
And whats the worst that can happen if you do go? I know that locally there is a shortage of good IT people. Losing my job would likely result in a salary increase, is the same true for you? Do you have skills that are in short supply? Considerable experience? Are there other oppurtunities in your home town that equal your current employer? If you can answer yest o most of these questsions I suggest that you give serious thought to finding an employer worth working for.
After all if this sort of bollocks is starting at your current workplace where will it end? The best way for quality employees to respond to the worst of employer practices is (IMHO) by depriving that employer of quality staff.
Regards
Karl
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Sorry to hear that and I wish you good luck. AFAIR there is a website freelegaladvice.com (not 100% sure, but sure you could find it out). Ask your question there. There are a lot of people there ( at least were few years ago) who could help you from legal point of you.
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The US is usually a right to work environment, but there are still lots of employee protections against random firing, and especially firing for health reasons. Typically a medical leave is available as a first choice, so I bet the company was looking to get around that.
Don't ever sign a resignation letter someone gives to you. Usually a resignation might get you two more weeks of pay, and maybe no work
, but it doesn't really change your resume since you probably wouldn't want them as a reference. Firing might get you unemployment, but that's not a lot of $$ and you still have to look for jobs.
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