DH fired due to family vacation

[Anonymous]

Our family's vacation has been on the calendars for months. Last week, DH was asked to go on a week-long work trip. This trip was not unexpected, but the timing was unexpected (it was originally scheduled for last week in June). DH agreed to go but asked to come back one day early due to family vacation. His boss agreed. Then day 2 of the work trip, and boss's boss tells DH that he is being let go because of this. DH offered to stay the entire time but was told no. What do you make of this? Was DH wrong to ask to cut worktrip short? Do you think there is something else going on? I feel like a terrible wife because I was originally upset that we would miss the first few days of our family vacation.

[Anonymous]

Did your husband get the approval to leave the trip early in writing? If so, his employer doesn't have a leg to stand on. Plus, if the vacation time had already been approved (again, in writing, on file with HR/etc) then the paper trail has been long established.

[Anonymous]

Either his boss is a dick or they love firing people for any reason because it saves them money to hire newer cheaper people or maybe there is a lack of work and $$$ to go around. Geez, sounds like a law firm to me!

[Anonymous]

I have to say that I would be suspicious that they were looking for a reason to let him go, and used this as their excuse.

It's a pretty lame reason to fire someone (unless there are particular circumstances that we don't know - like there's some critical thing happening on the final day... and/or maybe his communication about being able to be there or not be there was not crystal clear).

Was he wrong to ask to cut the trip short? Apparently so. But I think there's more to it than that. My guess is that he would have been out of a job before too long anyway.

[Anonymous]

Agree with 13:36. It seems that they were probably looking for a reason, or a last straw type of situation. However, if he does have the agreement in writing, then perhaps he can talk to HR or someone?

[Anonymous]

That's horrific. Not your fault or DH's. Even if he fights this and stays, I hope your DH is looking for another post right now.
I'd be very hard put to be civil to these people. No, actually, I wouldn't bother being civil.

[Anonymous]

Uh, this makes no sense.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Thank you everyone for your replies. I thought his work was being so unfair, but wasn't sure if my expectations were unrealistic. I know that my boss would never do something like this. And yes, he will be working on his resume this week!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Did your husband get the approval to leave the trip early in writing? If so, his employer doesn't have a leg to stand on. Plus, if the vacation time had already been approved (again, in writing, on file with HR/etc) then the paper trail has been long established.

Unless he has an employment contract or union agreement that limits the grounds for firing, the employer doesn't need a reason to fire him. As my employment law professor used to say, "without a contract, you can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your husband get the approval to leave the trip early in writing? If so, his employer doesn't have a leg to stand on. Plus, if the vacation time had already been approved (again, in writing, on file with HR/etc) then the paper trail has been long established.

Unless he has an employment contract or union agreement that limits the grounds for firing, the employer doesn't need a reason to fire him. As my employment law professor used to say, "without a contract, you can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all."

Yes, but your reason cannot be a pretext for something else that's illegal (e.g. age discrimination, whistle blowing). Moreover, a good lawyer would argue the company didn't follow its usual policy and procedures with respect to paid time off/vacations.

[Anonymous]

So sorry for you and your husband, OP

[Anonymous]

OP here again. We weren't planning on suing or making attempts to keep his job at this point. It's just a terrible way to treat your employees. But I appreciate everyone's perspectives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Did your husband get the approval to leave the trip early in writing? If so, his employer doesn't have a leg to stand on. Plus, if the vacation time had already been approved (again, in writing, on file with HR/etc) then the paper trail has been long established.

Unless he has an employment contract or union agreement that limits the grounds for firing, the employer doesn't need a reason to fire him. As my employment law professor used to say, "without a contract, you can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all."

Yes, but your reason cannot be a pretext for something else that's illegal (e.g. age discrimination, whistle blowing). Moreover, a good lawyer would argue the company didn't follow its usual policy and procedures with respect to paid time off/vacations.

There us no indication that this was a pretext for illegal discrimination based on membership in a protected class. Not following internal vacation procedures, while perhaps unfair, is not illegal. You can't sue for every unfair thing that happens to you.

Sorry, OP. I agree with others that it sounds like it would have happened for some other "reason" if not the vacation. Hope he finds something better soon.

[Anonymous]

You don't have to beat yourself up about the vacation. It clearly wasn't a good fit. If everything went down the way that you say, they wanted to let him go and used this as the opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don't have to beat yourself up about the vacation. It clearly wasn't a good fit. If everything went down the way that you say, they wanted to let him go and used this as the opportunity.

Agree with this. There's no way they would let him go just for this. There has to be some other reason, and they used this as an excuse. Is this totally out of the blue for your DH, or were there signs?