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Victim of Employer Descrimination of Gun Owners, What to Do?

4K views 43 replies 31 participants last post by  Eagleks 
#1 · (Edited by Moderator)
I am new here. I am a female in Louisiana with my CCL. I have an issue that happened to me at work and I'd love an opinion. I am a Registered Nurse working in downtown New Orleans. I was terminated from my job for retaliation over an issue involving a firearm. I found that some of the people in my unit were opposed to guns. Some of them made comments at lunch about how they think that people shouldn't be allowed to have guns. It came up that I had one and so did another guy. People were asking me questions and I politely tried to divert them. I had some words with a supervisor one day because they took our cell phones away on the job. My doctor was trying to call me about my lab results and I asked to keep the phone and she said no. I told her that I felt it was unfair but I put it in my locker.

A week later I was in a procedure with a patient and I was called out to go to the supervisor's office immediately. She got me in there and closed the door and told me that someone told her that I said that I was going to bring a gun to work and shoot everyone. Anyone who knows me and my gun safety and responsibility knows that is something I would never do or say in a million years. I was so shocked and stunned that I started crying and of course said that it was false, and that I would never do that. She told me to stop crying and that she was going to "investigate" to find out who made the accusation.

There were no witnesses to this discussion and it happened late on a Friday afternoon. I went home and was freaked out all day on Saturday because I was afraid the police would be showing up at my door. The crazy thing is that I am actually trying to become a police officer next year. I called a friend who is the police commander of my district and told her what happened. She suggested that I lock my guns up at her home until it was settled. She also told me to go to the hospital police and make a complaint. I did that first thing on Monday morning. The hospital police told me that they knew NOTHING about this accusation. All of this happened 20 days after that psycho in AZ shot up all those people. The hospital police found it totally inappropriate that they were not notified by someone in my department regarding this. The idea of a possible workplace violence threat is serious-even if it is totally false. It should have been reported to them and they should have been present when she accused me.

I went to her boss and complained and she did nothing. The woman's idea of an "investigation" was to spread the accusation among all the staff so that my coworkers were all acting afraid of me and no one would speak to me-hostile work environment. The hospital police suggested that I complain to HR for a hostile work environment and that's what I did. The HR lady was nasty on the phone and told me that "guns have nothing to do with this". All the supervisors and the head nurse refused to address my concerns about what amounts to defamation of character, over this false accusation. I told them that I was prepared to obtain representation to clear my name. At that point I was told that the issue would be dropped because the accusation was heresay and that it was never to be discussed again.

They neglected to tell me that I had 7 days to file a grievance over the accusation. The head nurse told me that "we won't be offended if you feel you need to go find another place to work". I already had job apps out for a month prior to this occurence due to unsafe practices in our dept. I filled out more job apps but wasn't getting responses. Two weeks later I was in a procedure with a patient and another RN who was best friends with woman who made the gun accusation. This patient was on a respirator and was acting wild and the MD told me to sedate him better so he could do the procedure. I followed his order and we finished the procedure w/o incident. The next day I am called into the VP's office and told that I was to leave because I was under investigation. This other nurse in the room told her that I gave a sedation drug illegally beyond my scope of practice, which again, was COMPLETELY untrue.

I was fired 4 days later. They had the option on this "alleged" offense to give a verbal warning, written warning, counseling, probation, and then termination. They skipped all other minor disciplinary actions and terminated me saying that I violated sedation policy. I asked for a copy of the policy and they refused to give it to me. I also asked for a copy of my SATISFACTORY performance review from the prior month and they refused. They denied me unemployment and have blackballed me with all the hospitals in the city and no one will hire me for a full time position. I have had to appeal the unemployment and the hearing is Tuesday. I have gone months w/o paying many of my bills because I ran out of my money and my credit score is in the toilet, and I am faced with possibly having my truck repossessed and being evicted from my apartment.

The temp job that I have requires me to drive an hour each way and I am lucky to get two shifts a week. I can't live like this. I had an interview on Monday and I was sure I was going to get an offer but they checked references. The hospital won't say anything to a reference but refers them to an outside agency that will tell them that I was terminated for cause and that I am ineligible for re-hire. That is the ONLY reason that I could have not gotten the job and I got a rejection letter today. Someone please tell me how an ICU nurse with 10 years of experience and an impeccable reputation with great references be in this position? I can't find anyone who will take this case seriously. This people are ruining my life. They hijacked a career that I worked hard for.
 
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#31 ·
Orignially posted by Claude Clay:
its human nature when there is a questionable moment--event, that we want to smooth it over; minimize it and hope it goes away. make nice. people who are basically good have difficulty accepting that the 'event' was intentionally malicious. they want to believe that it was a confluence of seemingly innocent items that came together to appear 'bad'; and that an excuse--though lame and left handed is sufficient for them to accept that it was indeed a innocent , though bad, event.
it takes multiple events for them to realize there is skulduggery afoot and by than it is already too late to make exact accusations cause time has passed and the players have shifted allegiances.
its hard to go back to the beginning yet that is what will work.
a legal team is required to scare the players straight. cause in the beginning they will hang together and it is these new lies that will drag the team down. there is a time and place for those we seem to loath. it is for her, now.
Claude: this is VERY WELL spoken. When a series of things "happen" at work, at church, etc, most of us normal folks want to believe the best about other folks, so we don't listen to that quiet little voice in the back of our heads that says: "there's something wrong here." Then, like the OP discovered, the "boom" is finally lowered and you get hammered. Hindsight is 20/20 isn't it. :mad: There's an old Army saying: "once is happenstance; twice is coincidence; the third time is the result of enemy action."

To the OP--stick to your guns (pun intended) and let your attorney earn his $$--there is not much worse than an organization that is twisted and crooked--doesn't matter if its a church, a hospital, a police department or the senate..........
 
#32 ·
Thanks very much. I am a little apprehensive about my attorney as she is female and is only a recent law school graduate within the last couple of years. I hope she has my best interest in mind. I am going over my statement today and all the firearm related issues have been thrown out, so it is strictly medical in nature. I'm just hoping that I am able to give some kind of statement regarding how this has affected my livelihood because it has made me unemployable. I have been rejected at every medical system in the city, some of those I even worked in before and had a good record in those places. I have been working in some form since I was 14 years old and never had a write up for any violations/misconduct until the issued in which I was terminated. I have been considered for some really great jobs until they check my references and then they drop me. Two of the those jobs were Bethesda Naval Hospital in Maryland and the hospital on Camp Lejeune. It would have been such an honor to take care of our military members and I was denied. I was also denied by another organization for veteran's. I was denied for a major health system in Missouri that wanted me to be neurotrauma preceptor to teach new RNs out of school to be trauma nurses. All of these places were very interested in me until they checked my references.
 
#42 · (Edited)
Thanks very much. I am a little apprehensive about my attorney as she is female and is only a recent law school graduate within the last couple of years.
As the father of a female attorney, I would suggest your main concern shouldn't be the lawyer's sex. My kiddo is a pit bull who has slapped down many male counterparts. However, inexperience could be a real stumbling block. Seek out someone who has done this before - male or female.

Would you pay money for an amateur surgeon?
 
#34 ·
Good luck with that. You're fighting the good fight. You were falsely accused, (stereotypically, at that) of planning a terrible event. That's exactly what the anti-gun community wants the public to think. We, as law-abiding and good-intentioned citizens don't deserve that label...I'm from Houma...Typically, the consensus on guns is different here. But I'm quite familiar with the NOLA constituents...God Bless.
 
#35 ·
Nobody at work knows what color underwear I wear, no one will ever know that I carry.

I'm very sorry for your trouble!!! You're in damage control mode now. No way to recover completely. Your goal should be to get your feet back under you and focus on moving forward. to do so may require planning and doing on a number of fronts.

1. Call all creditors and explain the situation and ask for relief. ALL of them. document your calls (names, dates, times, what was agreed to. Ask for lower interest rates, ask if you can pay a new minimum of $20 or whatever. Do this now.

2. Check with the State to see if they have an employment relations board or office. Check with the Federal Government to see if there's an agency you can talk to.

3. With the short supply of nurses out there, I have to belive that if your're willing to relocate (including out of state) you can probably get a job in another hospital. Problem is, moving seems impossible when you're in the financial situation you are.

4. Consider if there's family you could move back in with on a temporary basis. Tell them for how long and stick to it. do chores and agree to pay something to help with costs.

5. Consider selling the truck if it's worth more than you owe or trade it in on a lesser vehicle to reduce your monthly cost.

Stay cool, focused, and realize there's worse situations and that you can recover from this. Don't let the stress cause you to make poor choices that could make the situation worse. Write down your plan.

Eat right, sleep right and excercise. Force yourself into a routine.

Do you have a friend or someone to talk to? I hope you do. talk to someone and keep talking to someone as you work through this and finally...

call a lawyer but realize it's hard to find one that'll take a case like this without requiring money from you upfront. Lawyers who agree to take cases without pay until you get paid only do so because they believe it's a slam dunk. You're case sounds like a totally up hill battle but I'm not a lawyer.

Best of luck!!
Gideon
 
#36 ·
You may want to have your lawyer check up on what the hospital's administration is telling the companies you are applying to, in my state it's illegal for a former employer to give a negative reference about an employee. All they can state is hire date, date you left, and amount of compensation you made. Anything personal or negative that would effect your employment somewhere else is illegal and the employment commission could fine them and you could seek charges against the hospital for damages.

If in fact your former employer is slandering you to prospective companies you may be able to add that to your case.
 
#37 ·
Absolutely true here, that's a case for a lawsuit all in itself here.
 
#39 ·
All I want to do is move on and away from them. Hopefully tomorrow will be the last day I ever have to deal with anyone from that place ever again! I have another job interview tomorrow afternoon with someone who is interested in my skills. I will be saying my prayers for sure.
 
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