is this wrongful termination?
upon interviewing for an insurance company they asked which of the two positions open i preferred. i advised i would let them choose where they think i fit. i advised i have no experience so i was leaning toward which ever position is more entry level. they advised i have people skills that cant be taught. they said they are there to help and any additional training needed would be provided. i advised one of the qa managers i needed more training bc they took me off a day early after my trainer said she was bored, i was fine alone. this trainer was just taken off training due to personal problems and being on her phone! how is that being provided proper training?! i failed calls with my trainer and they still released me to work on my own! I was only working on my own for a month when they presented me with pips in writing. they said they thought i was going to be great but maybe they were wrong about me and i should find a job that's a better fit! how is that supposed to help me? I kept hearing everything i did wrong which irrevocably crushed my confidence. then, they kept telling me i needed to act more confident in my calls! their way of helping was to give me an hour training on claims only? they had my supervisor sit with me for one call one day. that was their "additional training". My supervisor was great and coached me when she could but she doesnt grade calls so in the end she gave me ideas for what to use as "connections" but qa wouldnt count it and she told me she was at a loss, she doesnt know what they want anymore! at one point i heard her on the phone (talking about me) say i pulled her calls for coaching and i dont see an issue am i missing something? when i started to get to the end of my pips they stopped letting me listen to both my calls! I was no longer being coached towards the end. It was like they resented i was improving. My last week at work my supervisor wouldnt even talk to me! I knew i was fired so i packed my bookbag with all of my important things. i reported to work one morning and they had went through my bag and my desk! anything that was on paper was gone. I gave up job opportunities for this job, now i have this leering over my resume! the first time i took a job out of my comfort zone and was treated like a failure! im uncomfortable to apply to anything with real career opportunity. Now again, in the middle of the year, my husband has to put in a life event to switch health insurance back to his company. The implications of this seem endless. I find it odd that their way of helping is to put me on pips that extends through the holiday season, and fire me soon as claims die down.
1 answer | asked Feb 20, 2020 1:16 PM [EST] | applies to New York
Answers (1)
I take it that you were non-union, a private employer, with no employment contract. If true, you were an "at will" employee. They did not even need a reason to let you go.
Employee who are placed on PIPs should call employment lawyers immediately. In your case, it may not have helped. But sometimes we can reinforce how important it is to train, learn, do everything you possibly can to overcome the PIP. Many employers don't even provide PIPs. They just let employees go.
You have not described any discrimination. It sounds like they tried to help you succeed but at some point the supervisor may have decided it was not a good fit.
If there is a positive to this experience, you were not fired because of your personality. That's much more difficult to fix. Not having the skills is something you could eventually learn. Having poor interaction with people might be unfixable.
For your next job, try to learn as much as you can not just on the job but at home. If you are in a career you have never been in, you have to train yourself and at work. Employers don't even have to provide training today unless you happen to be covered by a union agreement and the union insists on training new employees like they used to do for journeymen.
What this shows is that employers in this industry simply can not find people with experience to do those jobs so they gave you a chance. If that's what you want to do, study on your own and apply to another company after you have gained some additional knowledge. Since it's not your personality or ability to get along with people, you will find another job probably in this same industry. It's a positive. If they can't find experienced people neither can their competition. Good luck.
posted by V Jonas Urba | Feb 20, 2020 1:36 PM [EST]
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