If I get fired, should I consider filing a lawsuit?

[Sam _]

I work for Dollar General, started literally a year ago. I started working in retail when I was 15. Had 3 jobs total and this is the first time I'm actually being threatened to be fired (I'm 21 now). This would be the first time I have ever been fired so I'm a bit upset by it, also I take a lot of pride in my work. The only reason I've had to leave my last two jobs is due to severe hour cuts to the point I had to quit and one even went out of business.

 

When I first started working at Dollar General, it was a great move. I left a job giving me 10 hours a week to a job with a manager giving me 20 hours. He had to resign due to chemotherapy taking it's toll on him, so we got a semi-retired guy who acted as manager until a new manager was assigned to my store. He saw how good of a worker I am and kicked me up to 35 to 40 hours a week. Then, after 5 months, we get a new manager asigned. Supposedly he has had 11 years experience in management in K-Mart. I figured this would be a good thing.

 

No one gets scheduled specifically to stock the overstock items in the store. My assistant manager told me that she looked into our system and found we have over $20,000 worth of overstock with no way to put it up. We've never had this problem until he came in. This is what he does:

 

Say we sell 16 bags of potato chips a week. So he orders two boxes of chips, each box automatically comes with 12 bags each. Our sales are always automatically sent to the warehouse so the warehouse automatically sends us the amount we need to the closest item amount possible, meaning we would be automatically getting one box of chips on the truck. So now we get three boxes of chips. So now we have a box and a half of overstock chips. Its like this for the majority of our inventory.

 

What does he do when he notices the overstock? Just whines and complains about how Dollar General doesn't know how to do anything right and literally throws a temper tantrum. I've actually had to talk to him after calming down upset and scarred customers who have complained to me about this.

 

Our store has NEVER gotten much business. What do you expect being stuck on a back-road, hidden by trees on three sides and a Wal-Mart on the fourth? We get at most 100 customers on our most "insanely busy" days in half of a business day. But now I'm stuck at 20 hours again because of hour cuts. I get customers coming in telling me that they wouldn't be shopping there if it weren't for me; telling me how I'm the nicest and most helpful associate they've seen in a long time and that most of them only come in when they see my car in the lot, which is always the only car parked near the road.

 

Most of our customers don't buy anything over $10 total. Our store can only have 2 people running the store on either shift (only two shifts). I've noticed that most people show up when I'm working. This completely works to my disadvantage. Loss Prevention is accusing me of sliding merchandise or stealing in some other way because my basket count is low (average amount paid per customer the individual cashier has rung up). Apparently any and everyone who has a low basket count is stealing in some form. My manager just told me that Loss Prevention and the DM are coming down on him about not writting me up in the past 2 months. My basket count has been low since january and he is claiming that he is being told he has to write me up now for each time I've had two consecutive weeks with a basket count that is "too low" ($0.50 or more under the overall average of all cashiers' baskets that day). I usually wind up low on Tuesdays and Fridays.

 

So basically, because I get 100 customers who all spend $5.00 each, I'm screwed. But because Liz gets 25 customers who spend $5.00 each, then nothing needs to be done. I talked to my assistant manager and she said Bret (our store manager) told her to take the register for me today to see if the same thing happens to her. It did. Her basket count is just as low as mine usually is, which is good since today is Tuesday.

 

He specifically told me he doesn't want to fire me and doesn't know what to do. I don't either. What should I do here besides look for another job (which I've already been doing)? Also, what should I do if I do wind up fired? Should I consider hitting them with a lawsuit like a couple of my friends are telling me I should?

[Jd1983]

To be honest, I don't think that you'll be too successful if you did file a lawsuit against them.

 

They can just say that they fired you because you weren't making quota, or doing your job.

 

I say that you should continue doing what you have to, and see if you can look for a job elsewhere in the meantime.

 

Hang in there.

[HouseKitten]

You haven't been fired yet. If they're doing an investigation and you're genuinely not stealing then they won't have anything to put on you.

 

However, like JD says, they could just turn around and fire you anyway for not 'pushing sales' or something equally inane. So I don't think you'd get very far with a lawsuit.

 

Could you ask to do different shifts? If you're doing days when it's quiet and customers don't spend a lot but your colleagues are getting better results on different shifts, why not ask if you can switch it around and do different days?

[confused25]

Honestly I don't think it's worth the effort or the $$ to sue them. It sounds like your management is accusing you of doing something without any proper investigation or research. If I were you I would have just left. You shouldn't be the one pushing back at them. Your manager should have stepped up and done something if he knew that whatever Lost Prevention has accused you of doing is not true. Honestly I don't think I would want to work for a place where it's so poorly managed and the only authority has no clue what's going on. That's just my two cents.

[AuthenticAuthor]

Honestly I don't think it's worth the effort or the $$ to sue them. It sounds like your management is accusing you of doing something without any proper investigation or research. If I were you I would have just left. You shouldn't be the one pushing back at them. Your manager should have stepped up and done something if he knew that whatever Lost Prevention has accused you of doing is not true. Honestly I don't think I would want to work for a place where it's so poorly managed and the only authority has no clue what's going on. That's just my two cents.

 

Best advice thus far.