In July of 08 I became an employee of Securitas. I was assigned to Lloyd Center Tower in Portland Oregon as a foot patrol officer. I showed up on time every day, attended all the training, and stayed for overtime MANY times due to some officers on sight not showing up. I had no problem with it, I liked the money and the job was fun and easy.
In training we were all told that the most important quality of Securitas was appearance. That if our uniforms were even frayed or the colors were dulling, that we were supposed to ask for new ones and they would give them right away. Well, I got one uniform, to use all day five days a week in the humid summer heat walking around constantly. I filed for more uniforms but till the day I was fired, I never received even one new shirt.
So I tried to wash my uniforms every night but with all the over time, and my apartment's washer and dryer breaking about a week in, it didn't happen. I was reprimanded for that a couple times, and despite my protests, and my calls to the branch office about lack of uniforms for ALL officers, and ALL the sympathetic words of "We're so sorry, we'll get that done right away!", nothing ever came of it. So I was becoming slightly humiliated going to work.
No big deal.
So I mentioned all the over time didn't I? How many of the officers just didn't show to work sometimes so I took over positions I had never been trained in and had to improvise through but got the job done anyway? Well, one night doing over time about an hour before my shift ended I was feeling extremely tired, fatigued. I still barely remember the drive home. I got home and crawled into bed, where my room mate found me covered in sweat and burning a 103.3 degree temperature. I passed out that night not even able to move.
I woke up in the morning not much better and called my boss (get this we are required to call 4 hours ahead of our shift, I called 3 hours and 55 minutes before my shift and got scolded for calling late.) That day I was supposed to be covering someone else's shift at noon. I called at 10:00 and Chris, my boss, wasn't very happy to hear I wouldn't be able to make it in that day. He told me I had to get a doctors note.
I figured that was only fair so I agreed and called my sick grandmother to drive me to the doctor. It turns out I got an infection from a scrape on my finger (could have been work related, I'm not sure). I got my doctors note that said that I wasn't allowed to return to work untill after I had taken all my antibiotics and felt better. I had 10 days worth of antibiotics.
I didn't remember to bring my phone with me being ridiculously sick and all, so I called my BRANCH manager from my grandmothers cell, who's number I happened to have in my wallet, and told him what happened and asked if I could have my site managers number (Chris). He gave me the number and I called Chris.
Here's the thing, Chris works at Securitas as a manager, he is CONSTANTLY on his phone, always talking talking talking. I called him at noon, in the middle of his shift, and he didn't answer, so I left him a message about the doctors note and told him EXACTLY how long I would be out of work. My grandma heard the entire message as well.
I asked him to call me back but he never did. I received a call about four days later when my uvula was so swollen from the infection I couldn't open my mouth or I'd choke on it. Much less be able to talk on the phone. I tried to talk to him but he couldn't understand me so I handed the phone to my roommate who told Chris everything on why I couldn't talk.
I'm still not sure what Chris said, my room mate said he just sounded angry.
When I finally started feeling like I could go to work, I called Chris and he told me to call my branch manager. So I did. My branch manager (Nathan Gaurd) told me to meet him at his office in downtown Portland, so I drove that hour to meet him. He sat me down in his office and told me that he was firing me over a no call no show. I told him there was a problem with that. That I called, I even called HIM. He said that he was able to prove that I didn't ever call and that Chris never recieved the message (I told him how I thought that was weird since Chris is ALWAYS on the phone, not checking his messages on his business phone would be strange indeed).
Nathan showed me his cell phone and I flipped through the received calls till I found my grandma's number on that date and he just shrugged and said that he was still firing me. Even though I had the note, even though I proved I called. I still have the note in Oregon somewhere. Funny enough, they fired me days before I got my benefits.
Isn't there a law to protect people like me? I got stuck with no job with rent due in this crappy economy because my boss through a hissy fit?
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