Should You Resign with a Possible Termination in Progress

My question involves labor and employment law for the state of: Texas

I am an at will employee and my company seemingly wants to terminate me near the end of my 90 day probationary period. I am an ethnic minority and female, which may or may not be important. I have no desire to sue anyone, but would like advice on how to handle my situation.

BACKGROUND
I have been in training for the last 2 1/2 months. I have completed an insane number of training courses ahead of a very challenging schedule. I just went on my final training event which involved interaction with a customer at their site. The trip involved conducting the type of work I will do, by following a very complicated protocol. The trip was very difficult due to issues with the way the customer filed information which was very unorthodox for our industry. Due to these issues, I wasn't on track to complete my tasks as quickly as usual (I was slightly slow on my first site visit a week earlier, but completed my tasks with positive feedback). My instructor who was very knowledgeable with the complicated protocol, took over this visit, and he spent about an hour working with me to figure out the site's odd filing system. He indicated I was knowledgeable, but he couldn't sign me off (which would have ended my training phase), due to the complications.

So, upon my return to the office the next day, I was greeted by an email from my manager which was sent to me in error. It asked for help filling out termination forms. Apparently he had decided to terminate my employment and somehow botched up and asked me for help instead of a fellow manager. Yes, I will likely be fired by someone, just that clueless.

So, with this fortunate heads up, I wrote a couple of letters to both HR and his senior manager. I basically stated that I had NEVER received any negative feedback either formally or informally, and that he appeared to be making his decision based on factors other than my performance. He may have received an informal call from my instructor, but the decision was several days prior to the instructor's formal report. He also never bothered to ask me for my perspective on the trip. Seriously, this manager had given me absurdly simple "coaching", but never taken me aside and expressed any sort of meaningful criticism or indicated that my performance was lacking in any way. I basically stated in my letter that the decision was premature, unfair, and based on something other than my performance since I had ZERO negative feedback. I work out of a home office, and don't see how my manager treats others, so I wrote that he is condescending and rude, and seems like he may be a racist or sexist due to his decision without any information. I emphasized "may be" because I don't see how he treats others to compare my treatment. I suggested a new manager without a bias (since this moron is already on record that he wants to fire me) in my letter.

So, a couple of meetings with him, the senior manager, and HR later, my probationary period is extended and they gave me 7 "areas of concern" that the same clueless manager will be monitoring. In writing, I asked for examples of how I underperformed in each area to help me improve and so I would know how I will be judged. My manager refused to give examples (because there are none, in my opinion). During the final HR meeting, I expressed my concerns with the process since I know the manager wants to fire me, and asked what to do about the "manager's bias?" The senior manager went off and got angry saying he didn't want to hear any more about a bias. I already felt threatened by this company, but I guess I'm not even allowed to have a different opinion. I do have recordings of all HR conversations and several others with my management, so I have a recording of the "don't want to hear bias anymore" complaints.


So, at any rate. Here I am in this HR "process" that seems to clearly have a predetermined outcome. I believe it's just an extension of the probationary period so they have time to document issues in some of the areas of concern which are the most generally stated categories that most any perceived transgression could be categorized. I actually, would like to quit, but feel like I'm being bullied to quit so they can avoid unemployment and so I have to repay a signing bonus. I don't anticipate too much trouble getting a new job, but without one in hand, I'm not comfortable being bullied out and repaying so much w/o getting unemployment.

So, my questions.

Is there a way to quit without having to repay the signing bonus?

Ditto on keeping unemployment?

Can I send a letter suggesting a settlement with HR instead of having to waste 5 more weeks while they document some issues? Any tips on how to suggest this outcome?

I don't desire to sue, but I am interested for the sake of leverage if I need to negotiate an exit: Do I have any sort of legal case against them? Even if I don't have a case, will they have any worry that I do? I know I'm at will, so maybe there's no case, and they know that, but I'd like to know. To me, it just seems beyond unfair that they have never documented anything before expressing a desire to fire, then they are extending a probationary period so they can retroactively build a list... Any thoughts or advice on how to deal with this?

Thanks for any advice.

LL

repaying your signing bonus would be based on the terms of getting the signing bonus.

Quitting will usually disqualify you from unemployment unless there was good cause and so far, you have not given any good cause reasons to quit.

I'm amazed you still work there at all after the "maybe" they are discriminating against you because you are a female and a minority yet you state you have no basis for that claim. Sounds like you may be the prejudiced one here.

and with comments like this:

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I suggested a new manager without a bias (since this moron is already on record that he wants to fire me) in my letter.

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I suspect you are right: you will be fired.

What makes you believe you will be fired because you are a minority & female. You were a minority & female when you were hired.

Again. I had only received positive feedback. I still have not received any negative PERFORMANCE based feedback, except that I was slow on a site visit. Keep in mind my instructor, who had a year of experience with the protocol to follow, was also slow. All of my timing metrics, which other employees are routinely far behind on, were completed on time, except for one or two that were at most two days late. The manager reached a decision to fire me based on some reason other than performance, and being a racist or sexist are two possibilities. Keep in mind THE MANAGER DIDN'T HIRE ME DIRECTLY. I was assigned to him. My issue didn't begin with the company as a whole, just his decision to fire me without any stated reason that happened prior to the decision.

I'm not looking for a debate on who's a racist. I'm looking for advice on how to legally negotiate an exit keeping my signing bonus/unemployment without doing anything stupid that would give them cause to fire me.

Thanks to those that are helping.

Your rudeness and sarcasm are not warranted.

As you were previously advised, whether or not you must return your signing bonus is based entirely on the wording of the signing bonus agreement. Not being psychics, we have no idea what those words might be. However, since you have a copy of the document, why don't you read it to see what it says about whether or not you may keep the signing bonus?

Regarding UI, you will not be entitled to benefits if you resign. Period. However, if you are fired for non-wilful misconduct, you have a pretty good shot at getting UI benefits.

Hope this helps! :)

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I'm looking for advice on how to legally negotiate an exit keeping my signing bonus/unemployment without doing anything stupid that would give them cause to fire me.

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You got it. No one here can help that you don't like it.

Your employer does not have to give a "good reason" for terminating your employment. In fact, he doesn't have to give any reason at all. He can fire you because it's a day ending in Y, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Things like this:

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so I wrote that he is condescending and rude, and seems like he may be a racist or sexist due to his decision without any information.

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...show a horrible attitude. I'd fire you for your 'tude alone - accusing people of racism and sexism without grounds to do so is unwise and a great way to get shown the door in a hurry.

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Quoting LawResearcherMissy

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You got it. No one here can help that you don't like it.

Your employer does not have to give a "good reason" for terminating your employment. In fact, he doesn't have to give any reason at all. He can fire you because it's a day ending in Y, and there's nothing you can do about it.

Things like this:



...show a horrible attitude. I'd fire you for your 'tude alone - accusing people of racism and sexism without grounds to do so is unwise and a great way to get shown the door in a hurry.

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You realize I had already been sent an email (by accident) indicating they wanted to fire me? It's not like I went looking for a fight with an attitude.

I think, out of respect for people's time, I didn't get into a lot of the details of this. I realize that's a factor, but the conclusions some people jump to are funny. I assure you when you find out that you are about to be fired from a company that you had liked until that point, by a manager that has never taken you aside in 2 plus months to discuss ANY sort of performance issues that it's worthwhile to question his motives and provide other possible explanations to a larger audience. It wasn't attitude, there simply wasn't exactly a lot to lose.

So now that it's apparent that his manager and HR are comfortable with documenting reasons for termination after the fact, the probation extension is obviously a charade that I would prefer to avoid, and just negotiate a way out. I was hoping someone knowledgeable about dealing with personnel matters would help with a plan to propose this.

LL

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You realize I had already been sent an email (by accident) indicating they wanted to fire me?

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It's irrelevant. You're not grasping that as an at will employee, you're not in a position to "negotiate" anything. If you want to avoid repaying the signing bonus and have a chance in hell of qualifying for UI, your option is to shut your yap and wait for them to fire you. "Negotiating an exit" ensures that you will not qualify for UI - your employer will be contacted about your reason for unemployment, and they are legally bound to be truthful. "She quit" disqualifies you from UI.

Is there a way to quit without having to repay the signing bonus? Only if your employer voluntarily chooses to release you from that obligation.

Ditto on keeping unemployment? Only if your employer agrees to tell the UC Division that you were fired or laid off and not that you quit.

Can I send a letter suggesting a settlement with HR instead of having to waste 5 more weeks while they document some issues? Settlement? Your employer has no incentive to offer you a settlement in order to induce you to resign. Why would they?

Do I have any sort of legal case against them? Not that I can see. Your feeling that you weren't given a fair shake during your probationary/training period does not give rise to any legal claim. Your gender and race appear to be irrelevant. You are the same gender and race now as when they hired you several months ago. Had they wanted to discriminate because of your membership in protected classes, they never would have hired you.

Any thoughts or advice on how to deal with this? You can cautiously broach the topic with your supervisor or HR along the lines of "If I were to chose to resign, would the company be willing to forgive repayment of the signing bonus" etc., but you aren't in any position to demand anything or play hard-ball as you have no leverage here.

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Quoting legallunkhead

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You realize I had already been sent an email (by accident) indicating they wanted to fire me? It's not like I went looking for a fight with an attitude.

I think, out of respect for people's time, I didn't get into a lot of the details of this. I realize that's a factor, but the conclusions some people jump to are funny. I assure you when you find out that you are about to be fired from a company that you had liked until that point, by a manager that has never taken you aside in 2 plus months to discuss ANY sort of performance issues that it's worthwhile to question his motives and provide other possible explanations to a larger audience. It wasn't attitude, there simply wasn't exactly a lot to lose.

So now that it's apparent that his manager and HR are comfortable with documenting reasons for termination after the fact, the probation extension is obviously a charade that I would prefer to avoid, and just negotiate a way out. I was hoping someone knowledgeable about dealing with personnel matters would help with a plan to propose this.

LL

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I am knowledgeable about HR matters, and employment law as well. The information I gave you is accurate and factual. Again, your rudeness is not warranted.