I had been working at Rent A Center for about 14 months when I found out I was pregnant. I had no concern about loosing my job, because I read into the maternity policy, saw the maternity leave program, thought I was set.
Well, when I came back from my doctor with a lifting restriction that all went down the drain. I was unable to lift over 25lbs. Which apparently is the end of the line with RAC.
My store manager recieved the notice the day after my appointment and he passed it off to our market manager. I heard nothing back so assumed all was well and continued working as normally. I was a credit manager so very little lifting was involved, and there were two other male managers in the store, so I thought it wouldn't be that big of a deal. How wrong was I!
Three days later I was called into the store managers office to be put on speaker phone with him, and the market manager. I was told I was "not allowed to work" due to my lifting restriction. They could let me get away with working until Friday, then they would have to put me on medical leave. If I was to have the restriction lifted though, I could stay. The market manager told me several times I could have my job back after I had the baby, he kept making it sound like everything was fine, and this wasn't a problem.
Well, it wasn't a problem... Until I realized some minor details he forgot to mention in the conference call.
1. FMLA is unpaid
2. Hardship from the 401K program - unavailable to those who are pregnant
3. RAC has a moonlighting policy saying that while on leave, you may not work anywhere else, or they have the right to not hire you back.
So not only have I been fired, but they try to tell me I can't work anywhere else! How am I, a single mother, supposed to live on nothing?!?!?!
I was beyond upset to say the least. I couldn't stop crying. I just couldn't believe that a company I had given so much to could just let me go that easily.
I looked through every HR article on leave, read the entire employee handbook, read the Family Medical Leave Act website. RAC has a loophole of everything. There is no way around what they did to me.
I filed for unemployment, not that it will do any good, because I'm sure they will deny it. But I did. Even though I have already found another job that pays just as much, and I don't have to give my life for.
Just wondering if anyone has any suggestions on what to do next, or if I should just cut my losses and move on.
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