I was put on extended probation. I did leave a message on my supervisor's phone as she was not in her office that an emergency came up and I had to leave for the day. This suffices for other employees, except me.

Five weeks later, I was suspended for two weeks for attending a funeral on my lunch hour. I did tell my co-worker I was going to lunch; my supervisor was not in her office once again. We have to punch in/out on a time clock which I did. The supervisor communicates to only one worker where she is going and not the rest of the staff. I was gone and did not miss my regular day and ten days later was suspended.

I have appealed my case to the administration. My probation was denied by the Head Administration. I am the sole worker who has to put in memo form if I am to be gone ten minutes or more. This was made up by the supervisor last year. I feel as if I have to write a memo in going to the rest room.

I did type a memo to attend lunch today and she said, "Now what?" I responded, "Why did you say, now what? What do you mean? I can't take a lunch now?" She responded, "No, you can." She hemhaws around but I do the little memos every day.

What do you call this?

I can understand this is a frustrating situation for you. In general, most employees are considered at-will and can be terminated immediately for any reason, or no reason at all, unless there is a written employment contract in place specifying that the employee can only be terminated for cause. Sometimes "cause" is defined, sometimes not, but generally would include circumstances such as failure to meet the job qualifications, misconduct, etc. However, it is illegal to deny employment on the basis of a protected class (like race, gender, religious beliefs, etc.)

I suggest you contact an attorney to determine your legal options. You can find an attorney through the locator service on LawInfo’s home page at: http://www.lawinfo.com/.

You can also browse through the information in LawInfo’s Free Legal Resource Center here: http://www.lawinfo.com/consumer.html.