That’s One Way To Fight Back Against Unfairness

Back in the early 1990s, I was working for a company that provided staffing for US government agencies. I was a system administrator at a large Department of Transportation facility. One day, I walked in and was told to see my supervisor, who very apologetically told me that Uncle Sam no longer wanted me working there, and, well, I was fired. I was told to go to the contracting company’s office on the other side of town, which I had never been to save the day I was hired.

Shocked, I drove up there. I was like twenty-four and had never been fired before. In retrospect, I know what happened: the project I was working on was failing, not because of anything I did or didn’t do — the concept itself was flawed. There were three people who worked on the project: two were federal full-time employees, plus me, the contractor. Anyone who has had experience with this knows the contractors are the first to go.

I sat down with the manager of the local branch, who had an email from the government employee in charge of the doomed project, listing a parade of horribles that I had done. Some of the minor ones were true (I had been late a few times) but the major ones were just… fabrications.

Manager: “They claim that there was a problem with the networking and that a contractor had to be engaged to fix the problem. Is that true?”

Me: “Well… yes. I am that contractor. I diagnosed the problem, and then I fixed the problem. That’s my job. Or at least it was until a couple of hours ago.”

The manager realized pretty quickly what was going on — not that it got me my job back. As we went through the separation procedures, he told me that per company policy, he was required to document that I was not eligible for unemployment compensation. I just nodded because I didn’t know much about these things.

Manager: “You are now getting two weeks of notice. For the next two weeks, you are to show up to my office.”

He offered the use of office equipment to print resumes, apply for other jobs, and the like.

After a couple of days, he said he’d set up an interview for me for another project at the same facility. Sure! I went down there and sat with the project manager. The interview lasted less than five minutes.

Project Manager: “We’re a COBOL shop here. What’s your experience with COBOL?”

COBOL is Common Business Oriented Language, a computer programming language.

Me: “None whatsoever.”

We both realized it was a bad fit. I went back to the office, confused as h***. The site manager knew I didn’t have COBOL experience. Why did he send me there?

I found out a few weeks later. I had applied for unemployment compensation anyway, upon the urging of friends who said that the “policy” sounded really sketchy. I had an interview at the unemployment office. They looked over the paperwork and noticed the form that said “ineligible,” and the lady explained that I could contest that. I said sure.

Employee: “Have you been applying for work?”

Me: “Yes.”

Employee: “And have you had any interviews?”

I told her about the one I had. Her eyes widened and she smiled.

Employee: “If they interviewed you for another position, that means you were not terminated for cause. You were let go because of a lack of work. That’s a layoff.”

She then marked on the paper that I was eligible for unemployment compensation.

I asked if I still needed to contest their findings.

Employee: “No. They can contest my determination, but given that they actively tried to keep you employed after these events, it’s not gonna fly. He did you a big favor by sending you on that interview.”