CarQuest Auto Parts Ripoff Fired an hour after filing a two week notice Coraopolis Pennsylvania
I've been a hard working, faithful employee of Carquest Auto parts for a year now. I've stayed late, come in early, and I feel gone above and beyond the requirements of my job. I have been delivering auto parts to accounts, taking phone orders for accounts, and selling parts to walk in customers.
That being said, through all of the boss's "bad habits", I've been there. We had three delivery trucks. A 1999 S10, 5 speed, no a/c, piece of junk, a 2002 Dakota, automatic, a/c, and a recently acquired 2004 Ranger, automatic, a/c. I'll show the importance of this shortly. This business employs 5 part time drivers, two of whom are female. One of those females legitimately can not drive a standard transmission. One of the males also can not drive a standard transmission. However, when the female who is perfectly capable of driving a standard transmission was scheduled, the boss would say "Make sure you leave the automatic for "Woman X". Why? Because she didn't want to drive a standard. Who does when you're doing it all day? So, needless to say, the full time folks who work there all day get screwed. That's all I have to say about that.
The other problem is when the boss's cash drawer comes up short. He has bad work habits, like charging folks for core charges, but not taking the money for them. This money had come out of my pocket on occasion, because I was the first person called about it, being the only other counter-person. The last incident was mere days ago, and I refused to spring the $50.00 from my pocket due to his negligence.
The final incidents, which occurred TODAY, was a). I was verbally assaulted because something did not get delivered as fast as he would have liked it to have been. While I understand there are certain frustrations, I feel that I should not have been belittled over this. And b). I was going over a clutch purchase with a customer, and informing the customer that I did not have it in stock, but could have it the next day. For this next part to make sense, there are different pricing levels for walk in customers and "accounts". Accounts get a price break because they spend a lot of money at the store. As I was finishing this "transaction", the boss comes over as he's done so many times, and pipes up "Put him under *discountX* to get a better price". Well, that just makes me look like a fool, so I said "Well, you go ahead and handle this then" and I walked away. He followed me to the back room and goes "Hey, you have a problem?" Well, yeah, I did have a problem, so I replied to him "Yeah, I do." and before I could voice the problem, I was told to go home.
That was quite enough for me, and I composed my two week notice that I would no longer be working there at the closure of the second week. I figured, this will give me time to source another job, and that would work out just fine. Well, I get a call about an hour after I got home, it was the boss. He said "We don't do two week notices here, so just don't come back"
Do I have recourse? There was always the chance that something would have changed before that two weeks, and I may have recinded my two week notice, but now that's not an option, and I'm stuck, just before the holidays with no job.
James
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
3 Updates & Rebuttals
Tim
Valparaiso,Indiana,
U.S.A.
Absent a contractual provision that grants you some kind of security in your position
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, December 03, 2004
Ukiah is exactly right. Absent a contractual provision that grants you some kind of security in your position, or an expression by a person authorized to make such an expression that your employment would continue, you are an "at-will" employee.
The vast majority of employees today are at-will. The tenured employee is going the way of the person who can drive a manual transmission. And yes, as an at-will employee, you may be terminated at any time, for any reason so long as its not forbidden by law (i.e. discrimination or an FMLA case).
Sorry about the luck, but it sounds like this wasn't such a great job in the first place. I know this is of little solice, but hey, crappy jobs are a dime a dozen these days.
As for my perspective on the two weeks notice, I say to hell with giving two weeks notice to an employer (unless you really like them and would feel bad not doing so). They won't be giving you two weeks notice of a termination, so why should you give them the luxury?
Best of luck to you James, I hope you are able to quickly find gainful and enjoyable employment.
Tim
Valparaiso,Indiana,
U.S.A.
Absent a contractual provision that grants you some kind of security in your position
#4Consumer Comment
Fri, December 03, 2004
Ukiah is exactly right. Absent a contractual provision that grants you some kind of security in your position, or an expression by a person authorized to make such an expression that your employment would continue, you are an "at-will" employee.
The vast majority of employees today are at-will. The tenured employee is going the way of the person who can drive a manual transmission. And yes, as an at-will employee, you may be terminated at any time, for any reason so long as its not forbidden by law (i.e. discrimination or an FMLA case).
Sorry about the luck, but it sounds like this wasn't such a great job in the first place. I know this is of little solice, but hey, crappy jobs are a dime a dozen these days.
As for my perspective on the two weeks notice, I say to hell with giving two weeks notice to an employer (unless you really like them and would feel bad not doing so). They won't be giving you two weeks notice of a termination, so why should you give them the luxury?
Best of luck to you James, I hope you are able to quickly find gainful and enjoyable employment.
Ukiah
New York,New York,
U.S.A.
Do you have a employment contract?
#4Consumer Comment
Thu, December 02, 2004
If not, then you are considered to be employed "at will", and therefore can probably be let go at anytime the boss feels like it. In fact, millions of people in the US are in the same situation, it's quite common. Are you in a union? If so, I would certainly seek their input. If not, you're now unemployed.
Without a contract, you can leave at will, and they can let you go at will - assuming that it was not for a select few reasons like age discrimination, race, gender, and so forth.
As far as recourse goes, I assume that you are NOT a poker player. I say that because what happened here was that you bluffed ("I'm leaving in two weeks"), your former boss called your bluff ("Don't wait, leave now"), he was holding all the cards and you're now on the street. Sorry about the timing, but you're the one that gave your notice. Put yourself in his shoes. Why should the boss continue to pay someone who he already knows is leaving? Look at it like this: If you had found a great job just 2 days into your 2 weeks notice period, are you actually claiming that you would NOT have taken it and would have worked the full two weeks at your old job? And that's exactly why he immediately let you go, as I would have also done myself, by the way.
Good luck!