I was dismissed by my employer this week because someone reported my jacket smelled like marijuana. I worked at this company’s contact center. Access to the building is governed by a swipe card system.
When I was brought into the senior manager’s office I was given the chance to come clean. I told them that I did not smoke marijuana in the workplace or just prior to coming to work. I told them I was out with friends Saturday night and that’s where the smell MAY have come from. I went into detail about the fact that I have sinus problems and my sense of smell is not that great. I was sent home without pay and told to report back the next day as scheduled.
The next day I returned and went about my job for the first hour of the day until I was pulled out of a meeting to go meet with my manager and the senior manager.
At that point I was told I was being dismissed for bringing drugs into the workplace and jeopardizing the health and safety of my co-workers (really, like really really?) and that I would not be given pay in lieu of notice. I spent this morning contacting local barristers. According to the 3 separate legal opinions I have received it seems to me like this was a case of wrongful dismissal. I guess I’ll be seeing I court douchebag. —Wrongfully Dismissed
This article appears in Nov 21-27, 2013.
Who do you not get along with at work? They set you up. Fuck them up.
what a stupid, senseless reason to dismiss!
so now the lingering scent of something is ‘bringing it into the workplace’?
agree with sodey, someone dislikes you and made trouble. if your jacket was stinky enough to just annoy people with the smell (cause skunk does stink, even worse than cigarettes) then they could have just asked you to leave it in the locker, break room, car or to wear something else. even a note slipped into your pocket. but getting you fired is just mean.
hope you win the case. I think the dismissal stinks far worse than your jacket could.
Why contact three ”barristers” to hear the same thing? Did 7 out of 10 ”barristers” tell you to go fuck yourself?
It’s a conspiracy….someone planted that smell on my jacket…really.
Is this the truth? If it is, the onus is on THEM to prove that you did it. And I’d fight it.
But just make sure this is the whole truth. Nobody should be intoxicated at work. On anything.
Seriously. You need to fight this. You may not get very far because technically most employers have the right to let you go for any reason they want. It’s something a lot of people don’t know. So this might have been their EXCUSE to dismiss you.
But because it’s a drug-related dismissal, and they gave you a reason, I think you have a case to at least file a serious complaint. Because this can affect your future employment.
What a knee jerk reaction. Ridiculous reason for dismissal.
This situation is nothing compared to what I’ve been through and seen working at the NSLC. I was also working in a particular kitchen of a highly environmentally reveared restaurant and I’m pretty sure I got fired because one of the cooks said that my head was a bit too close to her ass when I was putting a pie pan away at her work station. I even said excuse me and she didn’t move before I put it away.
People see other people much in the same way as they negatively view the entire world, and will assume the worst in you just to satisfy their own negative views. A definite outlet for psychotic type eco feminists was me, and I don’t even drive a car for environmental reasons. That discovery would probably have pissed them off even more.
Fuck them OP.
Where’s that ambulance-chaser Mike “The Hammer” Shapiro when you need him? Actually I think I’ve seen him on here before.
I believe you have a great wrongful dismissal case there OP. I suggest you pursue it.
Anyone know a lawyer that would take the case on spec?