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Firing With No Prior Discipline

toniatonia 38 Posts
in HR & Employment Law Vote Up0Vote Down
Hello forum :) One of my managers fired her employee without HR approval.

This employee was not given permission to have time off and decided to leave that day anyway, leaving her assigned children unattended. We covered it of course, but the DON fired her due to job abandonment.

She did tell the DON that she was leaving and was told that it was not approved and if she decided to leave, she would be terminated.

Was my Manager wrong?
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Comments

  • 5 Comments sorted by Votes Date Added
  • NaeNae55NaeNae55 3,243 Posts
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    What was the employee's reason for leaving? Is this employee covered by FMLA? Are they in any kind of protected class? Are you in an at-will state?

    If you are in an at-will state, you are only in a pickle if the employee had a protected reason for leaving, and if other employees are, and always have been, treated similarly.

    It would have to be a pretty good reason to leave children unattended and not expect to be terminated.
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  • toniatonia 38 Posts
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    She told her manager she was leaving because her daughter was being induced and wanted to see her grandchild be born. The Manager told her she could not leave due to lack of coverage for her scheduled shift. I know it sounds terrible and unfeeling, but the fact remains that there was no coverage and the employee chose to leave anyway, even after being told no.
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  • NaeNae55NaeNae55 3,243 Posts
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    My guess is your policies say 'up to and including termination.' A responsible person does NOT leave children unattended. Even if her daughter had been rushed to the emergency room from an accident I would expect the employee to make sure someone was watching the kids. She knew she would be termed, and it apparently was worth it to her (and it might be to me too, but still, I would NEVER leave children unattended).

    I would just counsel the manager to keep HR in the loop next time. Though the employee was wrong, your manager could have placed you all at risk.
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  • kelroskelros 16 Posts
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    If in an at-will employment state there would be zero legal concern. I'm in MT, which is not an at-will employment state, in fact has some of the strongest wrongful discharge statutes in the nation. I also work in the early childhood industry. If this business is a child care business, then there are probably licensing staff/child ratios, or in a school a substitute is needed. Walking off would put a child carel license at risk in most states, therefore endangering the entire business. Children cannot be unsupervised, so from an legal standpoint, certainly if the personnel manual states that the employees need supervisory approval to be absent, I see no problem. And, as others have said, perhaps losing her job was worth it to be with her daughter. But what about all the children she put at risk by her decision? It appears she only cares about her own family, not children entrusted to her care. How would she feel if someone entrusted with the responsibility walked away from caring for her grandchild? Or it could be that she didn't love the job anyway and was just looking for a reason to leave. I believe walking off the job against supervisory instruction, endangering children by leaving them unattended, is adequate grounds for termination without notice, even in MT.
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  • kelroskelros 16 Posts
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    if it is a child care facility, it may be a small business with no HR department, just the director, who may also care for children sometimes.
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