Corporate Jihad against Workers
by Name Withheld by RequestLink to article
Last year, I was let go from my job as a senior C++ developer. The reason given was that “I wasn’t a good fit going forward” — this despite the fact that I had consistently produced results for six years and had just delivered two significant projects in the past year. I guess it was just a coincidence that my replacements were much younger (I was 50 at the time) and more impressionable.
Since, at the same time, I was faced with losing my lease to a condo conversion, and needed to find a new place to live, I accepted a position with a local consulting firm, despite having serious misgivings about the company. After waiting for three months, my first assignment began. I didn’t have high expectations for the assignment, which was presented to me as C++/Perl maintenance programming, but I was hardly prepared for what was to come. The bulk of the work turned out to be making directed modifications to HTML files — to wit — glorified word processing.
I expressed concern to the management of the consulting company about this, since web page development was not my expertise, and in any case, I was being used as a typist! They discussed the issue with the client but, with the exception of some perfunctory platitudes and lame excuses, nothing ever came of it. At no time did I personally confront the client about this. I did the work, successfully (OK, it would have been tough to screw it up!) and the client expressed satisfaction with all of the work I had done and expressed an interest in having me back for a future assignment.
The assignment ended at the end of 2006, and I’ve been “on the bench” ever since. In that time, at the request of the company I have taken, and passed a Microsoft certification test (in an area that was new to me) and have been diligently working to get up to speed in areas where the company has told me they have assignments. They have queried me about one or two assignments that I really did not have the background for, but was willing to try. However, nothing ever came of this.
Today, I received a call from the general manager of the company telling me that they were letting me go because they were concerned that I was “unhappy” with the previous assignment. They also told me that they had received an e-mail from another one of their consultants who had been working at that same client that supposedly said I had a “negative attitude” and expressed “concern” that I was not right for the company. At no time was any of this discussed with me or was I given an opportunity to respond to these specious comments.
The general manager also claimed that I had been rude to her when she came out to discuss the issue I had raised. This is not only an absolute fabrication, she said nothing about it at the time or in the intervening six months! So, in effect, these people had a company spy surreptitiously reporting on me and on the basis of these anonymous (to me anyway) reports I’m being let go without having had an opportunity to respond or tell my side of the story.
Unfortunately, like most Americans, I live in an “at-will” state, which means that absent an obvious violation of laws regarding discrimination, I can be fired for any reason (good or bad) or for no reason at all. The best I can do is threaten them with an age discrimination suit. However, that has little chance of success as I found out last year when I inquired about my previous termination, which was a much stronger case.
I’m not really shocked about how few rights employees actually have and how the law protects malicious behavior by employers. But now, I’m ready to fight back. Employee rights need to be strengthened and the employment relationship made much more equitable if working people are going to have a chance against the corporate jihad against workers.
April 30th, 2007 at 10:32 am
I worked at a company for 10 years & never got a big raise or promotion. Since I was going nowhere there, I got some certifications & left the company.
I was at my next company for two years & was laid off with other people.
The first company asked me to come back as a “consultant”. So three years later, I was still a consultant. Despite working 40 hours a week, I was denied health insurance (I asked) & didn’t get a raise. I was finally offered a full-time position with a lot of travel but at $43,000 per year which is a joke because people in my position are making at least $60,000. I guess they thought they had me in a position where I couldn’t say no. Well I did.
Before they let me go they hired another ex-employee at $65,000 who doesn’t have to travel. They hired another person to work under this person & paid her $55,000 per year.
I don’t know how people can engage in these kinds of activities & live with themselves. I was surrounded by management who were treated very well by the president but thought I didn’t deserve any better than nothing. It’s no fun living with your parents because people see I live with my parents so they don’t want to pay me. If I was treated with repect & paid a normal salary, I would be on my own. It’s an endless cycle.
As for now, I’m trying to start a consulting business. That’s very difficult but I keep trying. The key for most of us is to keep making connections. The people who do well got lucky & met someone who believed in them early in their careers. I guess some of us have to work a little harder until we find people willing to work with us.