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My Job Fired Me-Then Tried to Investigate My Termination
“Excuse me Jessica, we’re not sorry we terminated you, but we do want to protect our own interests and ask that you turn over any evidence of your claims of discrimination.”
It didn’t quite go like that. Much duller, actually.
Instead, I received a template form message I’d received multiple times when I’d filed my previous HR complaints at the company:
We take these claims seriously, the company prohibits retaliation, please go somewhere private to discuss this sensitive matter, blah, blah, blah. I didn’t appeal my termination so some HR rep with the same name as me reaching out felt like them just poking a wound.
But what annoyed me the most after reading it was myself. How much my immediate response was to comply. Like a trained dog. So much so that my first sentence to respond was a reminder to myself first: that I am no longer their employee and I am under no obligation to cooperate with their internal investigations. I had to say that in my head over and over.
Even after being in the military for nine years I never felt like that and I was in a readiness unit so the majority of my career was training. Orders were barked, cursed, shouted. Sometimes by ego-filled puffed-up chest beating peacocks. But you moved with a purpose, not because you…
