job abandonment

[nina99371]

I would like to know what defines job abandonment in the state of TN? Is job abandonment even defined by the state or is it defined differently by different companies? I have always thought that job abandonment was being absent from your job for 3 or more days without calling your job to let them know why and for how long you were going to be out. Anything you can offer?

[Pattymd]

"Job abandonment" is whatever the company says it is. There is no applicable federal or state law. Three days "no call, no show" is common, but it is by no means required by law.

[Beth3]

What Patty said. My employers have had a two-day no call/no show policy for job abandonment but that term can also be defined several additional ways, such as simply walking off the job before the end of one's shift.

[nina99371]

Ok, that's what I thought. Now that that's cleared up... if you call in and speak to the supervisor on duty and nothing is said about any repercussions, can they still get you on job abandonment?

[cbg]

There's no law that says if you speak to a supervisor, you cannot be fired for job abandonment, if that's what you mean.

Whether it would be reasonable or logical to do so would depend on the exact circumstances and the company policy regarding call-ins.

[Beth3]

You need to provide some more detail as I haven't a clue what your situation is. if you call in and speak to the supervisor on duty and nothing is said about any repercussions Speak to the supervisor on duty about what???

[nina99371]

i spoke to the supervisor on duty when i called in so i could tell them that i wouldn't be coming in the next day because i was sick. that is what i meant.

[cbg]

And what are the standard call in procedures?

[nina99371]

well that's hard to say because they never saw it fit to give me an employee handbook like most places do when you hire in. i was always told, by the supervisors and the director of the department, that when you called in that you had to speak to the supervisor on duty. you couldn't just leave a message or anything like that. if you were going to be out for more than a day with any type of illness you were suppose to have a doctor's note. i didn't go to the doctor... instead i went to employee health, like i was told, and they gave me a note from there.

[nina99371]

maybe it would make it easier for you if i told you everything that went down. ok... it was on a friday and i felt horrible and that really doesn't begin to describe how bad i felt. i made it through 1st rounds and then i asked the director if it would be ok for me to sit in the dept. for a while since i was feeling like crap. she said fine so i did. about an hour later, i wasn't feeling any better. the director was out, so i asked the asst. director if i could go home. he said that he wasn't my super. so i would have to ask her. so i did and she said she had enough people to cover my load for the rest of the day so that would be fine. before i left, the asst. director told me to stop by employee health to get checked out. nothing was ever said about coming back so they could see what the nurse thought was wrong or anything. so... after employee health i went home. the next day i felt just as bad so i called in and i called in the next day because i still felt bad. when i went back to work, they called me in the office. the asst. director and the director (who wasn't even there when any of this conversation took place), said that i was suppose to come back after employee health so that they could decide whether or not i could go home. because of this they said that the absences for all 3 days were unexcused and considered job abandonment. i tried to explain to her that the super. said i could go home and they both argued that the super. didn't have the authority to send me home. i kept trying to argue that the asst. director had told me to ask her, but he kept denying it and of course the director believed him. if i wanted to abandon my job i would've either just walked out or not called in either of the 2 other days that i was sick. does any of this make sense to you? if it does please enlighten me because this happened over 3 months ago and i'm still confused!

[cbg]

Nina, while I do not agree with your employer's actions, they are legal. If they want to consider calling in to the wrong person, even though you may have been told to contact him, a termination offense, they may. If they want to categorize it as job abandonment, they may.

I agree that you have been treated unfairly, but you have not been treated illegally.

I hope you applied for unemployment.