"voluntary job abandonment"

by Anonymous
(Pittsburgh, PA)

I was working for the company just over 3 months. My car didn't pass inspection leaving me to have to buy a new car. I called in and spoke with HR about the issue asking if I could use vacation days I had. She gave me a hard time about it and told me to rent a car to come in which I told her would leave me with no $ to buy a car. I called off the next 4 days with bad luck finding a car and my live-in boyfriend's car needed fixed in the mean time. I had days to use so I needed to use them. I never received a call and then received a letter stating I was termed due not following call-off protocol and was voluntary job abandonment. I was still new and had no idea what the call-off procedure was and since no one called me I figured I was ok. Now I got a new phone number that I didn't physically give to HR but gave her a form for health insurance on my last day there that had my updated telephone number.



Anonymous,

Please believe me .. if the company had an HR department .. the likelihood that you did not receive an employee handbook with the "call off" procedure and the consequences for failing to follow it .. just doesn't sound very plausible because you usually have to sign an acknowledgment of receipt of said policies at the time of hire or orientation.

What's more .. if I spent the time and energy dissecting your question .. I could point out a number of things which make me think you need to work on "personal accountability". so you can know the difference between a valid an reasonable excuse and one that assumes the employer or I am an idiot.

Normally, if someone fails to call in for two days in a row .. they've job abandoned .. and that is a voluntary quit without good cause.

Getting to work is a reasonable expectation and when you want to use the days off that you might have accumulated .. there's a policy to follow to "request" time off, but of course that would be in the same employee handbook that outlines the call off procedure.

I advise you to know the rules when you find another job and never think that being "new" will hold up as an excuse for failing to follow an attendance policy.