Roy Hall claims, in his viral Facebook video, that after notifying The Home Depot that he would be having surgery, they fired him to avoid paying out short and long-term disability claims.
Hall says that after five years at the St. Petersburg, Florida, Home Depot, he had plenty of vacation and sick days saved up, as well as short-term and long-term disability plans, and he intended to have hip surgery. He had needed the surgery for a long time, but his doctor required him to lose weight first. Once he had done that, he informed his management and started the paperwork.
He had the paperwork filled out by his doctor, and on 22 June, 30 days before his scheduled surgery, they terminated him for “not writing up [an] associate].” Hall doesn’t elaborate on what that exactly means, and he states clearly that he believes he was fired to prevent him from using his benefits.
To keep reading and see the video, click here: Former Home Depot Employee Says He Was Fired Because He Needed Surgery
Here’s the issue based on my own experience:
If I discipline or terminate an employee I may not discuss the issue with others. The employee, however, can sat whatever she wants to whomever she wants.
Terminated employees rarely will say, “I violated company policy and Dorothy was completely justified in terminating me.” The sort of employee who gets fired doesn’t have that sort of fortutude, especially in the heat of the moment.
Meanwhile, I have to be all noble and discrete.
Towards the end of my career I terminated two employees who together had falsified records surrounding a quality verification. Their attempt was so clumsy that the Union refused to pursue the represented employee’s grievance. The management employee told everyone who’d listen what a horrible person I was and how I’d “discriminated” against her on every possible basis; then she filed an EEOC complaint which failed.
This event effected the morale in my shop pretty badly. I, of cours, couldn’t tell the rest of the team that the manager was a big, fat liar. Finally I sat them down. I asked them to consider my history and the terminated managers history. I asked them to consider the reputation of our shop and how a bad apple could endanger us all. I’m glad I held that difficult meeting since it diffused the situation quite a bit without me discussing specifics. Luckily the terminated manager shot her credibility in the foot when she latter blabbed about the results of the EEOC complaint.
So, Home Depot? Hard to believe this was done the way the employee states. Even if some store manager mistakenly terminated Hall, corporate, one imagines, would have fixed the situation by now. And of course HD won’t discuss the situation with an outsider.
You’re comparing apples to oranges here. The biggest problem with corporate America is that corporations only want the customer to see and believe what is on the surface, while paying no attention to ‘that man’ behind the curtain.
The careless actions by Home Depot towards employees are mounting at an astronomical rate, and it’s only a matter of time before Americans decide for Home Depot, how long they will stay in business.
I didn’t bother with watching the video as it was posted after the “termination” by Home Depot. Not knowing this person’s employment record or performance on the job, I can’t make a case for him either. But I do know that policies for taking time off are in place specific per location, in this case, Florida, which is a right to work state. Despite his claims of following proper procedures, ( doctor’s note, paperwork, etc.) Home Depot was well within their rights to terminate him for whatever reason they deemed under the right to work clause in that state. For them to have used that, knowing he was going out on a leave of absence, says something to his work performance, (okay but not great). He would have to prove that he was fired for requesting time off. All Home Depot needs to state is that he was terminated.
Let me guess… You voted for Trump.
Wow – rather snarky Trump Derangement syndrome there Robbie.
Once an employee verbally states his intent to leave to undergo a medical procedure that employee is protected under FMLA whether his paperwork is completed properly or not and any firing during this period is suspect at best. I can tell you from personal experience that mid level managers are routinely told to discourage paid leave under any circumstances (via underscheduling the employee to keep his pay period average under par to void his/her vacation policy etc.) and can and do get punished when an employee uses this time. Corporations get rated by media outlets like Forbes, Business insider, whatnot by their guidelines pertaining to employee benefits but these ratings are not influenced at all by the percentage of said company’s employees who qualify and claim said benefits, and in my experience (I was a mid level manager of the largest international restaurant corporation there is) VIGOROUSLY attempt to make the goals necessary to warrant such benefits impossible to reach.
I worked in the HR department at the Home Depot HQ in the early 90s and at that time, they had never lost a case where an employee had taken them to court or had a complaint. They document everything so well, the truth was usually very clear