Fired Without Notice: How Can My Friend Fight Unfair Termination as a Store Manager?

Dear friends, I need your suggestion; one of my friends is facing an issue with her present employer. She joined in July 2017 as a retail store manager. Her performance is good. However, the problem now is that the company has fired her without any notice. There was no email or any other form of communication. Her Regional Manager visited her store and simply told her to leave, that's it. She was not even allowed to make a call to HR, and she was threatened very badly. When she asked for a reason, her RM mentioned that her background verification was negative. She sought clarification, but it was not provided. She cried and left the store, then called HR. Even HR was surprised by what had happened. HR mentioned that he would check into it, but it has been five days, and no one has helped her.

I am not well-versed in company policies and labor laws, so I am seeking your suggestions. She comes from a poor family and is the one who takes care of her family. Therefore, I feel the need to help her.

Kindly suggest what can be done.

Regards, Vidhya

Before proceeding with any action, please review the employee's appointment letter and examine the termination/resignation clause. Based on your query, the employee in question has been with the organization for 3 months, and to evaluate their performance, a 6-month period is necessary. Kindly conduct a review and provide feedback.

Dear Vidhya, going by the description of your friend's exit, it appears she has been terminated due to non-performance. When the Regional Manager visited her store, he must have observed some glaring lapses or egregiousness that do not bode well for the stature of the manager, hence her on-the-spot termination. Neither the theory of HR Management nor the law permits this type of termination. Nevertheless, when power gets into the heads of senior managers, they behave like this.

The Regional Manager, after his visit, should have discussed his observations with the Store Manager. She should have been given a chance to explain her position. If not convinced, he could have asked her to resign. Instead of following this procedure, he terminated your friend instantaneously, and a cover-up of background verification has been provided.

Anyway, if your friend joined in July 2017, then she must be on probation. Even if the legal procedure had been followed, not much would have happened. They could have terminated her with a day's notice.

For HR Professionals: HR professionals always strive for employee retention, and to retain employees, they conduct employee engagement activities. However, in a company culture that permits on-the-spot terminations without justice or fairness, can these engagement activities be effective? If engagement exists at all, it would be physical engagement rather than mental engagement. Was it that difficult to make the employee's termination less painful? The news about on-the-spot termination must have spread throughout the entire store or even to other stores as well. With news of this kind circulating, will it foster healthy employee relations?

For the originator of the post: This is a professional forum. Therefore, before posting, take care of grammar and punctuation. Write the post on MS Word and then copy it.

Thanks,
Dinesh Divekar