Nurse Minnesota

[chrisinminnesota]

I am a twenty-two year old L.P.N in MN. At the end of my shift last week my boss came to my office and told me I was being fired for being absent for the previous two days. I was absent because I had to have a medical procedure and had a slip from the Doctor. She then told me that it would look better to future employees calling for reference if I resigned. She would only except a resignation that day however.
This was my first professional job after nursing school so I wrote the resignation letter. Is this legal? Isn't this coercion? Resign or we will give you bad reference? I am scared because I don't have an income now. After reading MN laws I'm guessing I wont get unemployment compensation. My claim is pending. What should I do?
Young and dumb in MN

[Pattymd]

Well, first of all, you remove your email address from your post. You don't want MORE spam, do you?

Unless FMLA applies, a doctor's note has no force in law and yes, you could be fired for missing the two days. How long have you worked there and were you hospitalized?

Personally, I wouldn't have resigned. Although some states, for unemployment purposes, consider "resign or be fired" the same as "you're fired", having to report to future employers that you were discharged because you missed two work days due to requiring a medical procedure is not going to be a future job-killer. Apply for unemployment immediately.

[chrisinminnesota]

Thanks. I have worked there for a year anh a half. I didn't know what to do when this happened. She blindsided me. No I wasn't hospitalized.

[Pattymd]

Reason I was asking was to see if FMLA might apply, but since you were out only two days and was not hospitalized, it wouldn't. Sorry.

You might want to contact HR to see if your supervisor had the authority to fire you under these circumstances. The firing was not illegal, but unless this was the straw that broke the camel, it at least seems unfair.