Legal Question in Employment Law in Michigan

I have been working for my current employer for approximately 9 years as a customer service representative. First the job was just answering phones and answering various questions about our merchandise or services. Approx 4-5 years ago I accepted another position within the company that did not include any phone answering duties. As soon as I accepted this position I realized why the previous individual whom occupied it had gotten so frustrated and decided to leave. This was a "lateral" move, so it wasn't a move up in pay for me, just more my type of work. I immediately began being dumped on by absolutely crazy amounts of work. After a period of time I asked them for a raise stating the amount of work that was expected of me compared to the other individuals with my same job title. I was turned down and not too happy, however, I kept at it. When I was later turned down again, I asked for a job description of my position because I was fed up with being taken advantage of. I was told that I needed to write my own job description and give it to them. There were 3 pages of duties expected of me on a regular basis. They promptly used the list against me and took certain items away to try to appease me at my current pay rate. Needless to say I was once again not happy, but I did in fact get alleviated of some tasks, so I decided to move on and keep plugging away. A couple years down the road the work once again began to pile up. I am very fast in regards to data entry, and have always had the ability to accomplish certain physical tasks that others in my area either could not or would not do because most of them are female and quite a few are a bit older than myself. What I'm trying to say is that my name has always been put on alot of different jobs and duties because the company knows that I am capable. I later made the same request in regards to a raise because I felt that things had gone back to being just as "lopsided" as they had been before. I was once again refused, and once again told I needed to write my own job description for the company. This in itself seems pretty bad considering it states very clearly in our handbook that each employee will have access to their job description. I was very unhappy about this but felt there was really nothing I could do other than quite, but I have two young children and cannot leave my family struggling like that. I began to be in charge of our biggest customer about two years ago. I actually was in charge of quite a few of our largest customers, but this largest one was rather important. We came out with a new line of items that this customer loved and started ordering very large amounts of. Unfortunately however we were unable to produce these items as quickly as originally expected, and on top of there being quality issues we began to accumulate thousands and thousands of pieces in backorders for this customer. The VP of our company and my Director (head of customers service) were both the lead individuals in regards to this situation becuase the account is so important. I was brought spreadsheets of what we would be receiving quite often, and they would ask me to tell them what we could fill on their backorders based on what was coming in, and assuming the quality was acceptable. Months passed and we really were not making up much ground in regards to satisfying this customers demand. One week the VP and the Director are both out. The customer gets upset because we are not meeting their needs and I am written up upon their return because they say that I damaged our reputation with our largest customer. I had received an email from this customer only a week earlier telling me that they know I do great things for them and they know this situation is not my fault. Yet still I was the fall guy for the company, written up and removed from the account. Also about a week or two before this I was very busy and replied to an email from this customer with only the word "yes" to answer their question. The sales rep whom handles the account for our company complained that this was unprofessional, and all though the customer did not find it inappropriate I did apologize and say I would try to be more thorough. In the meantime the new VP of our company writes me and tells me I need to be using "kid gloves" with this account and asks me if I've ever seen CSI on TV...I was confused so I just shrugged it off. He promptely walked down to our area and slapped me in the back of my head (like the guy does on the CSI show). I was so humiliated and angry but I am not a confrontational person, and I just withdew into myself. I also failed to mention that I was written up on a day that I was not even at work...I was out taking are of last minute prep for our wedding. Fast forward about 6 months later. Once again I am out, but this time because my whole family caught a stomach bug. I'm told upon my return that two faxes were on my desk that should have shipped overnight but did not because I did not enter them before leaving the last day I was there before I was sick. I had my doubts about this honestly, but I did apologize for having missed them. I was promptly told that they believed I did it on purpose and suspended for 3 days without pay 1 week before Christmas. Mind you both faxes were for companies that were my responsibility, so why would I purposely miss two faxes when it would only lead straight back to me?? A friend of mine contacted one of the companies and they did not even mind, saying that they never expected the order to ship the previous day anyway, yet the company still claimed I was damaging our relationshiop with our biggest customers and suspended me. When I returned from suspension I was told I was being stripped of almost all of my accounts and being put back on the phone full time. However, the 2nd day I was on the phones one of the FIVE people they had to divide my accounts up between had left due to family issues, and I was promptly told I needed to do her work for the day. Just seems wrong that I woudl get suspended for being apparently incapable of accomplishing these tasks, but then told I need to do them AGAIN two days after you suspend me for it. Please let me know if I have any legal action I can take against them. I just feel like I have been so wronged by this company.

1 Answer from Attorneys

Related Questions & Answers

More Labor and Employment Law questions and answers in Michigan

Looking for something else?