I ORGINALLY WASN'T GOING TO POST THIS, BUT TIME HAS GONE ON AND THIS IS THE ONLY PLACE THAT I FEEL THAT #1 I CAN VENT ABOUT IT AND #2 IF THERE IS SOMEONE OUT THERE THAT CAN GIVE ME ANY FEEDBACK ON MAYBE WHAT I CAN DO. UNFORTUNATELY, THE COURTS ARE ALL ABOUT THE EVIDENCE. MAYBE THERE'S SOME KIND OF "COURT" OUT THERE THAT WOULD TRY THIS FROM A FOUNDATION OF JUST PURE MORALS, VALUES & PRINCIPLES.
please excuse the massive amounts of grammatical and punctuation errors in this post as it's late and there's alot to write, so here goes:
there was once a man who managed a restaurant(we'll talk about him in a bit) and there was once a woman(if you could call her that) who worked there. now the woman had a boyfriend who she would fight with and who would physically and verbally abuse her when they were together. he would also call her @ work (on her cell phone because there were no personal phone calls allowed) to argue with her as well. the woman had a vehicle which the man broke one of her windows because they were fighting and he got angry. the woman wanted out of the relationship, but couldn't leave the boyfriend because he helped to pay her rent. then one day, the woman gets pregnant with boyfriend's baby. here is where restaurant manager comes into play.
one day restaurant manager calls his wife to ask here for information regarding domestic violence. his wife asks him why and he explains that he has a woman (if you could call her that) that works for him who's pregnant and is involved in an abusive relationship. the woman says that she's being hit by her boyfriend and is afraid for herself and her unborn baby. the woman says that the boyfriend has already hit her to the point where she's fallen down. the restaurant manager's wife feels for this woman and immediately emails her husband information for the woman to try and get some help with her situation. the restaurant manager gives the information to the woman(if you can call her that) and let's her know that he's there to help her.
now the preganant woman's performance at the restaurant is deteriorating due to obvious pregnancy and constant phone calls from her boyfriend to argue. some instances she was asked to be quiet because she was yelling on the phone. the restaurant manager is in a pickle because he still wants to help the woman because of the fact that she's pregnant and in the abusive relationship. he knows that if he let's her go, that she will have no place to go and her relationship with the boyfriend might become more volitile and might hurt the baby. woman is starting to take more breaks at work and more phone calls from her boyfriend. there was one incident where her boyfriend dropped her off at work and they were fighting. when he sped off in the restaurant parking lot, he almost hit an elderly couple. again, the restaurant manager is in a bind because he's feeling sorry for this woman and her sad, sad relationship status.
the restaurant manager finally tells the woman that she really needs to get some help for her situation because it is becoming dangerous to his customers and her performance is not doing as well because of her constant arguing phone calls with her boyfriend. she agrees and decides to call a counselor to talk about her situation. the manager lets the woman know that if she continues to see her boyfriend, that he might have to let her go because he can't have situations like that around his restuarant that puts everyone at risk. the woman agrees to stop seeing the boyfriend and keeps working at the restaurant until she gives birth.
one day the restaurant and his wife go to the bank. his wife is outside of the bank waiting for him when she sees the woman, her boyfriend, and their newborn pull into a stall at the bank. the whole time, the boyfriend is yelling and swearing at the woman to get the "f" out of the "f'ing" car and to hurry the "f" up. the restaurant manager's wife is listening in dismay. the woman finally gets out of the car and the boyfriend is still yelling at her telling her that she better stop "f'ing" playing and get the "f" out of the car. the woman take her baby out of the carseat and hands the infant to the boyfriend. the woman then proceeds to walk into the bank and is in there for about two minutes when she rushes out and tells the boyfriend, (in a hurried voice) that they needed to leave now! the boyfriend tells her what the "f" is going on and she doesn't answer him but is now rushing to put the infant back into the carseat so that they can leave. all the while while listening to the boyfriend swear at her. the boyfriend then starts their vehicle and speeds off down main street. at this point, the restaurant manager comes out of the bank and his wife said that she had just seen the woman and her boyfriend speed off. the wife said that the woman had gone into the bank and the rushed out. the restaurant manager told his wife that she most likely did that because she had told him that she would not be seeing the boyfriend any longer because he is a hazard to the restaurant and it's customers.
now the restaurant manager's wife is concerned for the child. the restaurant manager's wife is wanting to call an agency that can help children who are subject to volitile relationships where they are not able to help themselves. the restaurant manager asks the wife not to call because the boyfriend will know it was someone related to the restaurant and he didn't want any harm to come to the woman, nor did he want any retaliation from the boyfriend. so, feeling crappy and against her good judgement, the wife agreed not to call.
so in the next few days, the restaurant manager sees the woman and asks her if she is still seeing her abusive boyfriend to which she answers yes. the restaurant manager tells her that he needs to let her go because she is too much of a liability to his restaurant and it's customers. he tells the woman that he can write her a great letter of reference for her next job search or she can choose to fight it. the restaurant manager tells the woman that he's not sure what would happen if she chooses to fight the firing. he tells her that alot of things might come up in the case and that the scene at the bank and the fact that the restaurant manager's wife wanted to call the agency might come up as well. the restaurant manager is feeling bad for having to go to this extreme and let her go, but she really gave him no choice. his first priority is his restaurant. the woman agrees to the letter of reference and signs the papers letting her go from the restaurant.
time goes by and the restaurant manager gets a letter in the mail from a lawyer for the woman stating that she is suing him for discrimination and wrongful termination because she is a woman and she is pregnant. the restaurant manager is hurt. how can this woman who he tried to help go and stab him in the back like this? he did all he could to help her out and gave her as many chances as he possibly could and now she decides that she wants to sue him? this first letter really goes nowhere and so the woman decides to go to a particular civil liberties union in her state to again try to sue the restaurant and the restaurant manager as an individual and this is where things stand for now.
i guess that when people are desperate for cash, they will pull out all the stops and forget about the people that tried to help them when they were down. it's sad to think that this woman is a mother and even sadder to know that this is the kind of things that she will teach her baby.
Update: Well, she's won the first phase of this fight. Now, she's suing for a (excuse my language) FUCKING RIDICULOUS amount of money saying that she's owed pain and suffering. What about the pain and suffering that she's causing to this manager and his family who tried to help her, no protect her???? BTW, the restaurant manager's wife was pregnant at the same time as the woman. WHY THE HELL WOULD THE RESTAURANT MANAGER DISCRIMINATE AGAINST SOMEONE IN THE SAME SITUATION AS HIS OWN WIFE?????? Sorry for the capitals, it just frustrates me to no end how selfish, greedy and manipulative this woman can be because she knows the courts will side with her.
In conclusion (as if this was some sort of essay for school), if the restaurant manager really did discriminate against the woman, then by all means he would be at fault. The problem is that he didn't discriminate against her. He tried to help her and for that he's still at fault? Again, how can i teach my children to help people when they need it, when people will stab you in the back? "Don't help that screaming woman on the street who's getting beaten by her boyfriend honey. She might sue you because you dislocated her shoulder when you pulled her out of the way of her boyfriend's fist."
Until next post...
2 comments:
Having worked in the "restaurant" biz for so long and seeing it from the HR side of things I see where she would win. What should have happened was documentation for each of the incidents leading up the final firing. As much as he wanted to protect the restaurant he needed to have someone step in to make sure he did it in the appropriate way, like after the incident where a guest was almost run over. Sadly the reason for it is probably because of the boyfriend and the girl probably agreed because she feels the money will make things better....it won't. He'll take the money and bleed her dry financially and emotionally. Hopefully the restaurants insurance will cover the loss and that the loss will still be less than the potential harm he was putting staff and guests into every time she came to work....which could have had another law suit.
Powerlessness--That's what it all boils down to. Personally, I think she should have been let go a long time ago; he should have drawn the line early on, when she was talking on the phone at work when told not to. That said, it's clearly too late. I'm sorry for the manager. I'm confused, though--I thought she had the baby and then left the restaurant? Did she get pregnant again?!
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