Well, It happened to me today. They let me go. They said it just wqas not working out. The offical statement is "Her lack of focus necessitates a level of supervision that is out of line with her position". Unacceptable performance.

Yet, I have been given 3 performance awards for efficancy. But, in his explaination he kept repeating, that even though I stay within the budget, I'm too inefficient. This totally is crazy.

I was just diagnosed ADHD 1.5 months ago, and told my employer and that I was starting medication, and requested time to adjust to the medication. This efficency thing has been going on for awhile, I'll be told I'm not efficient enough, then at the next regional staff meeting, I am presented with a performance award for"getting a quality job done in record time" (that was my last one).

I am seriously considering calling an attorney in the morning, since they knew I went to a doctor and was just diagnosed and just started medications.

Any advise or suggestions or openings for a biologist?

Thanks

I'm sorry to hear that, and I hope you can find another opening soon. My 2 cents..

Doing things like rewarding you for your efficiency and then punishing you for inefficiency with no solid explanation is highly irrational.

And one major life lesson I've learned is to never put up with crap from irrational people. Since they are devoid of logical thought processes and tend to twist things like company policies and ethical standards to suit their personal opinion in any given situation, they cannot be reasoned with.

It sounds like it's really for the best. Even if you had kept your job this time around, they'd come up with some other "problem" in a few months. You can't win a game against someone who constantly changes the rules to be in his favor.

Oh my gosh - that is so very accurate. My immediate supervisor has not liked me since the day I was hired and even told me I was not his first choice. However, his boss is the one who hired me.


My immediate supervisor keeps screwing up the projects and I keep pointing it out and fixing it. I really think that was the biggest part of this. I'm not very politically correct when I tell him or someone else they screwed up. Then to add to it, I am a girl telling a guy he is wrong, over and over and over again, and I'm always right about it. This latest screw-up of his I think was the straw that broke the camels back. However, because I spent the week fixing his mistake while he was on vacation, my project got put on the backburner, and I missed an internal deadline for a quality control review. However, I stayed all night on a Sunday night, got the report done, reviewed by the department head and sent to the client on time! But, they are saying it was poor quality. I'm saying - wait - it was approved by the department head, and it met the clients deadline. In addition, I was working on his project instead, when are we going to discuss that one.

One other really irrational thing he kept saying was and I am quoteing word for word - "Even though you are staying within the budgets you are still not efficient enough" -

Go figure!?!? What, are the budgets not efficient? He set the budgets - I kept within them, what more can I do? Yes, I can stay really far below the budget, but that would result in extremely low quality.

During my last review, he tore me up and marked me as "Below average" in every category. I was ****ed. Especially when the item of tardiness came up. The previous 6 months I was late every day of the week by about 15 minutes. I had a hard time dropping my son off at daycare and leaving while he sat there and cried. It broke my heart. So, when that came up I was determined to change it, and I did. My sister moved into the same town and starting working at a daycare which I then enrolled my son in, and my sister comes over every morning and helps get the kids (2 now) ready and takes them with her, that way I don't even have to deal with it. So, for the next 6 months I was late 5 times total, and everytime, I called to tell him (on his cell phone because he never gets to work on time) and I was never more than 10 minutes late. He still said that was unacceptable. I went from being late everyday to late once a month, and he does not think I showed much improvement?!?!?!?! Then after he gave me a horrible review, which HR asked why I'm still employed, he came to my office and said "Don't take it personally I really think your doing a great job" What?!?!?!?!?!? I almost screamed!!!!! I did go to the bathroom and cry.

OMG, GROZ!!! I can totally identify with the description of your experience!!! I really understand your pain, I've been there. It must be an unfortunate (but NOT UNCOMMON) experience.

If you google "workplace bullying" there is a pretty good website about shi!!y bosses that I found - well - at least VALIDATING!!!

Ya know? I haven't had a job since my crappy experience with an irrational and decietful supervisor. It's like the people in power just enjoy abusing their power because they CAN!! Alot of sickos are out their getting sick delight in being the BOSS!!! I swear, it must be a sexual experience for them or something.

I hope you'll apply for unemployment insurance. Feel free to pm me, I gotta go right now.

Sue

Gosh, sounds like such a twisted experience! One minute you are great and next crap...that is terrible! It is hard to work in an environment with a crazy making boss. I would definitely go to an attorney for a consult and find out what your rights are. A lawyer can get involved if you were fired...that is when they usually do...not much they can do before hand.

Here is a book someone posted in this thread that seems to be helping another poster who is going through problems at work.
"Every Employee's Guide to the Law".
by Joel G. Lewin III

The person (*~Seek~* is his username) who posted the name of the book found it to be very helpful when they lost their job. If I remember correctly, it helped him to get his job back. You might want to send him a private message to find out the details. Or, go to this link and read post #6 about how the book helped him.
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28227

Also, read movingshadow's thread "My supervisor just put me on a 30 day warning." Read the entire thread because it is an actual situation that is unfolding as we speak. Movingshadow is fighting to keep his job by requesting reasonable accomodations and is dealing with an unreasonable supervisor. It is not exactly like your situation, but you might be able to gleen some information from it to help you. Here is the link to movingshadow's thread:
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28707

Lastly, it sounds like you are a great employee and since you have been diagnosed recently you do have some protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act...something you need to aware of for the future. Here is a link to a thread in these forums that might help. http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1901

You came to the right place...there is a wealth of information in these forums that can help you. Good luck and run to the nearest book store and get that book!

Thanks very much I will start reviewing all the information and keep you posted on my situation.


Also, I was amazed at the workplace bullying sites. That is so him all the time.

Thanks everyone.

I'll keep you posted.

You are welcome...good luck!

Hey there. Sorry to here about your job situation. A similiar thing happened to me about 2 months ago. Im filing a claim against my former employer with the EEOC but havent heard yet if I have enough grounds to do so. I too received excellent job reviews and bonuses just to be fired out of the blue. You may want to start by talking with an attorney, you should have some rights under the Americans with Disabilities Act. If I find out anything on my end that could save you a major hassle I will pass it on. Sometimes its just best to move on, things happen for a reason and life can seem unfair but you will be a happier, stronger person in the near future, guaranteed. Good luck to you.

There are a lot of sick a--holes in those kinds of positions. I've dealt with them before. Some of my favorites:

I had a boss who told me that he thought I was doing a really bad job and that I was on the verge of getting fired. I had no idea why, nor would he explain why. I mentioned it to a colleague of his, and she said "I don't understand.. He was just talking about you yesterday, he said you do great work and that you're one of the smartest people he's ever met!"

When I mentioned that I made regular backups of the company file server, he said "If you were smarter you wouldn't need backups because you'd be careful enough to not mess anything up in the first place." When I mentioned that they already saved the business once after a hard drive failure, he just got angry off at me.

Many of my assignments were rather open-ended. When I followed them to the letter, he'd criticize me for acting "like a robot" and not caring enough about my work to think creatively. Fair enough, but when I'd get creative with the more open areas and use some original ideas, he chastized at me for not following instructions and doing things exactly as they were laid out. This happened more than once. Eventually I said "You're expecting me to be simultaneously creative and non-creative. That's like asking me to turn the lights on and off at the same time. Those two things are mutually exclusive. Which do you want?" He said--and I swear I'm quoting this verbatim--"DON'T USE F***ING LOGIC WITH ME!!". Thank god it was over the phone so I could mute it while I laughed my *** off.

I left shortly after being called lazy, because I had "only" been working 16-20 hours a day over the past week.

Like I said, you can't reason with people like that. If they run out of real problems with you, they'll just start making stuff up.

That is so funny!!!! But sadly so very true, my ex-supervisor was just like that. I'm the best thing since sliced bread, then I'm the worst he's ever seen. I'm horribly inefficient, then I get an award for getting a top notch job done in record time. I'm told even though yes, I've been staying within the budgets, I'm still not efficient enough.Go figure!!

If normal people are really this stupid - it is sad.

And image how amazingly smart we would be if we were normal. Maybe the ADHD is really protecting us from all the idiots in the world. Because if we were as smart as we have potential to be (minus ADHD) then all these idiots would be too much to bare, and we would go crazy anyways.

Or - maybe it IS all these idiots that are causing our ADHD. And maybe we would be normal if we didn't have to politely put up with all the idiots in the world.

Just imagine?!?! :-)

Gosh, sounds like such a twisted experience! One minute you are great and next crap...that is terrible! It is hard to work in an environment with a crazy making boss. I would definitely go to an attorney for a consult and find out what your rights are. A lawyer can get involved if you were fired...that is when they usually do...not much they can do before hand.

Here is a book someone posted in this thread that seems to be helping another poster who is going through problems at work.
"Every Employee's Guide to the Law".
by Joel G. Lewin III

The person (*~Seek~* is his username) who posted the name of the book found it to be very helpful when they lost their job. If I remember correctly, it helped him to get his job back. You might want to send him a private message to find out the details. Or, go to this link and read post #6 about how the book helped him.
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28227

Also, read movingshadow's thread "My supervisor just put me on a 30 day warning." Read the entire thread because it is an actual situation that is unfolding as we speak. Movingshadow is fighting to keep his job by requesting reasonable accomodations and is dealing with an unreasonable supervisor. It is not exactly like your situation, but you might be able to gleen some information from it to help you. Here is the link to movingshadow's thread:
http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=28707

Lastly, it sounds like you are a great employee and since you have been diagnosed recently you do have some protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act...something you need to aware of for the future. Here is a link to a thread in these forums that might help. http://www.addforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1901

You came to the right place...there is a wealth of information in these forums that can help you. Good luck and run to the nearest book store and get that book!
Great post Susane! You're getting this down, aren't ya? LOL :D
It's really nice to know that we both are on the same quest to save as many ADDer's jobs as possible! LOL :D Perhaps you should just copy and save your post, so you can paste it into our Forums every few weeks (over and over) each time another ADDer posts that they are loosing, or have lost, their job again! LOL :D

Susane has already covered everything beautifully! :) Therefore, I guess the only thing I have to add is, Get The Book "Every Employee's Guide to the Law" by Joel G. Lewin III, especially if you have ADD! At the very least you will feel more comfortable in your job/career with the knowledge you will gain from it! Surely that is worth an $11 investment, don't ya think??

Good Luck My ADD Friends, :)
*~ §EEK ~*

Hi everyone. :-) and Hi Seek - I just posted this reply in the "I don't play the office......game" But I wanted to be sure you read it too. Thank-you so very very very much for the book.

Thanks for all your encouragement. I got that book - "Every Employees Guide to the Law"

I haven't read every page, but I have read and reread what pertains to me and then some. I have 4, yes 4 and I'm not done yet, legitimate complaints against them, and yes, I have proof to back it up, and it is all within the required time frame.

I spent all day today reading and working on the Attorney Interview Worksheet in the back. I didn't even realize when it was 5:00 and time to go get my kids.

1 - Of course - discrimination by disability under ADA.
2 - Breach of contract - my offer letter states the terms of my employment which included who my supervisor would be, however, after I started that changed, at the time I did not think about it, I was just happy to have a job. No, they never got my permission or even asked me if that would be ok.
3 - Wrongful discharge - They did not follow the employee manual on proper procedure when dealing with warnings, discipline, and termination, and my offer letter clearly states that the employee manual is to be followed at all times and to use it as a reference. If I have to follow it, so do they.
4 - Whistle-blowing - for pointing out and everything that has been going wrong. And yes, recently, I annonimously called an agency to bring some of the wrong doing to their attention. My employer could have possibly somehow found out I did it, but are keeping that part of my termination quite. It is something to think about and discuss with the attorney.

I still have many questions to answer on this worksheet, and it could possibly build higher. I am anxious about seeing the attorney tomorrow. Actually, I will be interviewing 2 attorneys. The more I read this book, the stronger my case becomes. However, it is also disugting to see just how oh so very little I knew, and so very very little everybody else knows and the way the companies and hoping you never find out.

Ignorance is bliss.

Well, I still have alot to do, I see both attorneys in the afternoon, then get the kids, dinner, bath, bed, clean up, then I'll finally get to relax and fill you in on the details.

Thank-you so very very very much for the suggestion of reading this book. I believe it should be at the top of the forum page highlight with something like - "Before you do anytihng else - GET THIS BOOK NOW!!!!!"

Groz :-)
They only thought I was bold and blunt before, they ain't seen nothing yet!!!
<!-- / message --><!-- sig -->

Oh bye the way the book was $18.02 after taxes at Books-A-Million, but well worth every penny.

Fantastic Groz!
That little book certainly saved my job! hehe :)
Don't ya just love the feeling you get when you start reading that book?? LOL :D
It honestly feels really empowering, doesn't it?? :)

However, you are still in the planning stages, so don't get your hopes up too high just yet! Also, try to get the EEOC, or the Dept of Labor involved if at all possible! They'll do it for free if it's discrimination, right???

Well, unless you don't think you want to go back to work there, because it would be a hostile work environment! After I returned, my job was hostile in a very underhanded way, but nothing I could prove 100%. However, by then I had gotten Back Pay, an Apology, and I got to rub it in their noses for a while, before I finally left on my own accord! Oh sure, I could have stayed! But one must weight-out all the pro's and con's for them self, and decide if it's worth it to stay at that job. I had already found another job by then, and decided to move on! So, it really depends on what your ultimate goal is in the long run! For me, I work in Healthcare and could easily find another job! Some people may not be as fortunate as I was.

BTW, I'm going to have to get me a New one of those books! I've given mine away too many times, and the laws probably changed a lot since then. (It was 10 years ago!) :)

Anyway, Good Luck My Friend, and keep us informed on how it goes! :)

Peace,
*~ §EEK ~*

Great post Susane! You're getting this down, aren't ya? LOL :D
It's really nice to know that we both are on the same quest to save as many ADDer's jobs as possible! LOL :D Perhaps you should just copy and save your post, so you can paste it into our Forums every few weeks (over and over) each time another ADDer posts that they are loosing, or have lost, their job again! LOL :D

Susane has already covered everything beautifully! :) Therefore, I guess the only thing I have to add is, Get The Book "Every Employee's Guide to the Law" by Joel G. Lewin III, especially if you have ADD! At the very least you will feel more comfortable in your job/career with the knowledge you will gain from it! Surely that is worth an $11 investment, don't ya think??



Good Luck My ADD Friends, :) *~ §EEK ~*



Thanks *~SEEK~*! ***curtsy curtsy*** I thought your post to movingshadow was great and your suggestion to get the book really helped him, so I thought I'd pass along your great suggestion to Groz.

It's great to see people fighting to keep or get back their jobs...with good ammunition too! I am going to get the book as well incase anyone I know needs help. Thanks to you for enlightening us!:)

A different perspective: I have read numerous times that ADD`ers have an overall higher IQ when compared to non-ADD`ers. Maybe these people really are "STUPID" for good reason?? hehehe

Most people are "Stupid" when it comes to work place laws, which is why it's important to educate yourself if you have ADD!

Seek,


The attorneys I've met with so far seem disinterested in the disability, but interested in other charges.

However, I want ot focus on the disability. It might because I was nervous as hel and probably didn't make much sense. Do you have any suggestions or pointers for the next attorney or if I should talk to these again? Anybody else reading this please feel free to give me some advise.

Have you called the EEOC or the Dept of Labor yet?

That will be the first thing I do Monday morning.

Make sure you write down the points you want to make when you call them! Use the book to remind yourself of everything that you want to say! So you present it well to them!

I was planning on going in person, to be sure I get the attention I want. But thanks very much for the advise. I will work on that tonight. I wanted to write something anyways for the attorneys. When I try to talk to them I ramble and change the focus and jump from incident to incident and do not clearly make a point about any of them.

I was planning on going in person, to be sure I get the attention I want. But thanks very much for the advise. I will work on that tonight. I wanted to write something anyways for the attorneys. When I try to talk to them I ramble and change the focus and jump from incident to incident and do not clearly make a point about any of them.You know I know exactly what you mean, which is why I reminded you my friend! :)

Groz, from my recent experience, it is better to attack on as many fronts as possible to increase your chances of a larger settlement. The first two lawyers laid out what issues they can handle and the EEOC probably can handle your disability claim. So, why not attack your employer from as many fronts as possible? Let a lawyer, who has indepth experience with employment claims, attack from one direction and let EEOC attack the disability claim. This way you will be covered on all fronts. However, make sure the attorney you choose has finesse and I cannot express this enough, an attorney who is experienced and has finesse will get you the result you need!

In the end, it all gets watered down to what is legally plausible according to the evidence. A good attorney will look at the case and attack as many points as possible according to the evidence and testimony you supply.

I was thinking that very same thing. I am about to leave to meet with the EEOC and I've got a second appointment with one of the attorneys on Wednesday to get the unpaid overtime started. The unpaid overtime by itself is not worth that much money. However, when you add the threat of expanding it to include all 185 employees of the company for the past 40 years you've got a bombshell!!However, I'll be willing to be quite and not tell everybody of the wrongful practice if they dramatically increase my severance package.

Seek,


The attorneys I've met with so far seem disinterested in the disability, but interested in other charges.

However, I want ot focus on the disability. It might because I was nervous as hel and probably didn't make much sense.I would suggest the lawyers disinterest is because you cannot use a disability after the fact. If you have been successful at your job for a number of years and nothing has changed but a diagnosis, you will have a leg to stand on. If you are suspended from a position for what your employer considers poor performance or a change in performance, your disability is not an excuse.

If you were hired for the position, your employer was aware of your disability and you perform your job as expected, the employer cannot dismiss you just because of your disability.

On the other hand, my husband was rather successful in a suit for wrongful dismissal which a past employer insisted he file. The case never even went to court.

Please, if you don't mind tell me more about your husbands suit.


As for my situation, they have been hounding me about inefficiency since I was hired. I'm not that bad to begin with, they just want me faster so they can make more money. I even recieved many performance awards for efficiency. However, I also recieved some disciplinary warnings for various reasons.

The first one, I wrote and sent an email, after hours, to a tortoise forum I am on and the email offended an attorney who knows my boss. The attorney forwarded the email to my boss and I was written up.

The second one I was observing dredging of a river to ensure safety of the mangroves and I took some of the fill from the river home. Everyone was ok with it, the foreman, the client, everyone, except my boss. The foreman even delivered it to my house. It turned a 3 day job into a 6 hour job. I saved the client both time and money. But I got written up for lack of judgement.

Oh well.

But if you could elaborate on your opinion and your husbands case I would appreciate it. I filed a charge with the Office of Equal Opportunity today. This is the county level department that handles the EEOC cases.

The lady I spoke with couldn't say much. But she did say it was pretty straight forward. She went over the law with me paragraph by paragraph and I met all the qualifications and did all the required steps, and they broke the law, knowingly at that. So this could possibly become willfull disregard for the law and intentional discrimination.

I filed a charge with the Office of Equal Opportunity today. This is the county level department that handles the EEOC cases.

The lady I spoke with couldn't say much. But she did say it was pretty straight forward. She went over the law with me paragraph by paragraph and I met all the qualifications and did all the required steps, and they broke the law, knowingly at that. So this could possibly become willfull disregard for the law and intentional discrimination.
hehe! :) :) :) :) :D :D :D

Grozlykos, your case sounds very different from my husband's case. My husband's position was terminated, without notice, but with a severance package. He wanted a bigger severance package and got it.

I was terminated without notice as well. The reason for the termination had absoluetly nothing to do with the disciplinary warnings. They said their giving me a 2 week severance. I'll believe it when I see it.

Hey GrozLykos. It sounds to me like you have a strong case. If I find out anything in my case that may be useful I will pass it along. Go get 'em!

I made a decision and hired one of the attorney's today. I told him that I filed with the OEO and he took a closer look at my disability case. However, he also explained that the overtime case is potentially worth substantially more money. In addition, to the fact that it's already won. There is absolutely no question what so ever, I won the case and they are guilty and they have to pay me what they owe me. The only question is was this the policy for everyone else? If so, how much is my silence worth? I can take what they offer - if it is large enough and walk away but they will require me to sign a clause that I will never talk to anyone or sue them for anything else. (Some sort of language like that) I told him, only if it's large enough, he replied of course it will be well worth your silence and agreement not to sue for anything else. If they don't offer you anything acceptable then not only will we turn the overtime case into a class action lawsuit and inform everyone who has ever worked for them in thier history, but we will also aggresively persue the disability and the whistleblower cases.


So that made me feel much better.

That's Great Man!! :) :) :)

I'll bet that this case will take a long while!

I imagine that your lawyer will probably advise you to not post anything here regarding your case from here on out, which is probably wise. I mean, ya never know who might read this, right? You did provide some information that someone might be able to put two and two together! Probably not, but you may want to re-think sharing with us from here on out regarding your case!

My only interest now is that you win no matter what! So be careful with what you share with us, ok? :)

Good Luck My Friend! You know we are rooting for ya 100%!! :) :)

Grozlykos,
Please read my PMs to you ASAP!

I wish you the best of luck Groz...go get em!