There is much to be said about Star Milling - and none of it is good.
But the main reason for this report is that they fired my husband, Scott, under false pretenses. This all started in January when we decided to take our 2-week vacation to WA to visit family. We filed vacation requests with our respective employers (i.E., filled out the forms) & turned them into our immediate supervisors. Mine was accepted without problems, but his turned into a nightmare! He filled out & turned in his request to his supervisor, CHRIS ROBERTS, who immediately told him something along the lines of, "Yeah, this shouldn't be a problem, you should be able to go on your vacation & we'll be fine here." Before you say anything, yes, we understand that this was only a VERBAL approval.
About a month before our vacation, "Mr." Roberts (I put that in quotations because only A REAL MAN holds such a title!) asked my husband if he was still planning to take his vacation time. Scott confirmed it & "Mr." Roberts wrote in this time (March 18 - April 1) on a large desk calendar in his office, in plain view to anyone who walks in. There are other employees at the company who can attest to this, but for fear of retaliation, won't do so. It was a known fact that Scott would be out ON VACATION during this time. Scott asked if his vacation was still approved for the purpose of reserving a hotel room & "Mr." Roberts told him everything was alright.
One week before our trip, "Mr." Roberts approached Scott & asked him if he was still planning to take off for 2 weeks. Scott, surprised by the inquiry, told him, "yes, you said it was okay & I've already booked the hotel room for that time." "Mr." Roberts then tells him, "Well, it may not be a good time to go because we're short-staffed & we may not have anyone to cover you while you're out." Are you kidding me? This company HAS ALWAYS found a way to cover other employees when they took their vacations. Why was Scott now the exception? The catch is, after "Mr." Roberts made this remark, NO ONE ever approached Scott again to tell him that he couldn't take his vacation.
The last night Scott worked before we left town (March 17), his entire work crew & "Mr." Roberts approached him to wish him a good time on his vacation. "Mr." Roberts even shook his hand as he told him, "Have a good time. See you when you get back."
When we returned home from our trip on March 31st, we went to the post office to pick up our mail... And a nasty surprise! Scott had received some certified mail from the company, which we thought were forms to have me added to his health insurance. Turns out they were COBRA forms for him! Scott had been fired from Star Milling while we were on vacation! He immediately called "Mr." Roberts, who didn't even have the balls to answer his call. Scott then called MISSY (Plant Manager & "Mr." Roberts' boss) to find out what happened. "Ms." Morrison (as with "Mr." it take a REAL WOMAN!) only responded with, "Uh, I'm sorry, I can't tell you anything. You need to talk to HR about it." After an unanswered call to HR Scott finally got a call back from MARYLOU (no last name available): "You were terminated for abandoning your job." WHAT? He was also informed that his vacation request was turned in to HR... WITHOUT A SUPERVISOR'S SIGNATURE! The company held Scott responsible for "Mr." Roberts' missing signature on a form he turned in back in January.
To all this, many questions still go unanswered:
- How can this be claimed as "abandonment" when the company (employees AND employer) KNEW he was on vacation?"Abandonment, " by definition, implies absence without prior knowledge of one's whereabouts.in these tough times & considering that I had recently been laid off from my job, why on earth would Scott "just up & leave?" I should mention that Scott had been a more-than-loyal employee for three years, even taking a demotion from a supervisory position to put in... Who else?"MR." ROBERTS! (I'll leave that story for another post).
- How is Scott responsible for "Mr." Roberts' signature AFTER he (Scott) turned in the request to "Mr." Roberts? It's like telling your superior how to do their job. As a superior, "Mr." Roberts should know HOW to do his job; if he can't handle a simple vacation request, he has no business being a supervisor.
- How would Scott know that "Mr." Roberts didn't sign the request when "Mr." Roberts continually told Scott that everything was in order for him to leave on vacation? Once again, yes, we understand that everything from "Mr." Roberts was VERBAL, but according to Scott, this has been the company's way of doing things for YEARS (and I have no reason to believe my husband is lying, thankyouverymuch).
- Why was Scott NEVER specifically told, "sorry, you can't go, your request was denied" when they knew what was happening? Those words never came from ANY of the "higher ups" at this company.
There are other issues to be raised with Star Milling. As I stated before, there's much to be said about this company and none of it is good. But I'll leave those for subsequent posts.
Judith
Riverside, California
U.S.A.
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