wxcrazytwo
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- Sep 13, 2005
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Grandma fired for missing work during Katrina
Woman took care of granddaughter since parents stuck in New Orleans
Katrina multimedia
Reuters • Slide shows
See the latest images from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
MSNBC TV • Video
See the latest Katrina video reports from NBC News.
• Blogging from Gulf Coast
Follow two MSNBC.com journalists as they blog from the less publicized areas of Katrina's wrath.
Getty Images • Close-up: New Orleans evacuation
MSNBC.com takes an exclusive look at the problems with the evacuation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Katrina resources
• FEMA "catastrophic hurricane" plan
• La. officials' request for levee funds
• "Hurricane Pam" exercise
• "Hurricane Pam" wrapup (PPT)
• DHS, FEMA exercises; mostly terrorism
• DHS, FEMA plans; few hurricane
• DHS National Disaster Planning Scenarios (DOC)
• New Orleans Emergency Plan - Hurricanes
• New Orleans Plan for Disabled Citizens
Documents require Adobe Acrobat except:
PPT - requires MS PowerPoint to view
DOC - requires MS Word to view
MAPS OF THE REGION
• New Orleans: Before and after
• Newsweek: The view from above
• NOAA's view of the devastation
HURRICANE GUIDE
• Facts and figures
• Property protection
• Health and safety • Major hurricanes
• Deadliest hurricanes
• Weather disasters
Most Popular
• Most Viewed • Top Rated
• Ophelia strafes N.C. coast, islands next
• New Orleans’ French Quarter to reopen soon
• Inventor denies using dead cats for fuel
• Roberts says he is not an ideologue
• Brown blames state for flawed Katrina response
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com
• Strays of hope
• Survivor Story: 6-Year-Old Leads Five Toddlers, Baby To Safety
• Giants aim to make Saints feel at home
• Lost in Katrina, dolphins 'flipping' to be found
• Loomis leaves Gordon’s team to join Petty
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com
Updated: 10:59 a.m. ET Sept. 15, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When forced to decide between caring for her 18-month-old granddaughter while her parents were stranded in New Orleans or showing up for her job, Barbara Roberts chose to be a grandma.
And for that, she was fired.
Roberts, 54, had driven 200 miles from her home in Mount Vernon to Columbia on Aug. 27, the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina came ashore, to care for granddaughter Trisana for a couple of days. Her daughter, Tina Roberts, and son-in-law, Chris Hardin, were in New Orleans.
Story continues below ↓
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It was supposed to be a weekend business trip for the couple, and Roberts, who had used up her allotted time off in her assembly line job at Positronic Industries, had planned to be back to work on Monday. Her daughter had even arranged for another baby sitter to spend Sunday night with Trisana so Roberts could get home in time.
But when her son-in-law tried to schedule the flight home on the afternoon of Aug. 27, he was told all flights had been canceled because of the approaching hurricane.
“There was a Category 5 hurricane with a bull’s-eye on our butts, so we called Barb and said we didn’t know when we would be coming home,” said Hardin, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. “We truly didn’t know what would happen down there.”
With no other relatives in the area to take care of the child, Roberts said she had no choice but to call work on Aug. 29, the day the hurricane hit, and tell her boss that she would be missing a few days.
“There was no decision to make — it was already made,” Roberts said. “My daughter could have died down there. This was family. You don’t walk out on a child — especially my grandbaby.”
'Absolutely unethical'
Hardin and his wife spent several days locked down in a hotel — safe from the chaos that befell most of New Orleans after the levees broke — and finally made it back to Columbia on Thursday, Sept. 1. Shaken up, they asked Roberts to stay one more day.
She says she was told on the phone that she was going to be fired. And on Sept. 6, she was.
“All I know for sure is that I had missed so many hours, and then this came up,” Roberts said. “Usually you have a certain amount of vacation time, and I had used it up. You’re also allowed so many unpaid days off, and I’d used them up, too. Fact is, I missed the allotted time and I got fired.”
In response to questions about Roberts’ termination, Positronic Industries President John Gentry said the company had made cash donations to relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims, but he declined to talk about Roberts. The company manufactures electrical connectors.
Hardin said his mother-in-law’s firing was “absolutely unethical.”
“People speak of family values, and I don’t see what’s a more central family value than a grandmother stepping up in this sort of situation,” he said.
“I sit here trying to imagine what kind of world it would be if grandmothers didn’t make that decision.”
Corp at its worst...
Woman took care of granddaughter since parents stuck in New Orleans
Katrina multimedia
Reuters • Slide shows
See the latest images from the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina
MSNBC TV • Video
See the latest Katrina video reports from NBC News.
• Blogging from Gulf Coast
Follow two MSNBC.com journalists as they blog from the less publicized areas of Katrina's wrath.
Getty Images • Close-up: New Orleans evacuation
MSNBC.com takes an exclusive look at the problems with the evacuation of New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Katrina resources
• FEMA "catastrophic hurricane" plan
• La. officials' request for levee funds
• "Hurricane Pam" exercise
• "Hurricane Pam" wrapup (PPT)
• DHS, FEMA exercises; mostly terrorism
• DHS, FEMA plans; few hurricane
• DHS National Disaster Planning Scenarios (DOC)
• New Orleans Emergency Plan - Hurricanes
• New Orleans Plan for Disabled Citizens
Documents require Adobe Acrobat except:
PPT - requires MS PowerPoint to view
DOC - requires MS Word to view
MAPS OF THE REGION
• New Orleans: Before and after
• Newsweek: The view from above
• NOAA's view of the devastation
HURRICANE GUIDE
• Facts and figures
• Property protection
• Health and safety • Major hurricanes
• Deadliest hurricanes
• Weather disasters
Most Popular
• Most Viewed • Top Rated
• Ophelia strafes N.C. coast, islands next
• New Orleans’ French Quarter to reopen soon
• Inventor denies using dead cats for fuel
• Roberts says he is not an ideologue
• Brown blames state for flawed Katrina response
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com
• Strays of hope
• Survivor Story: 6-Year-Old Leads Five Toddlers, Baby To Safety
• Giants aim to make Saints feel at home
• Lost in Katrina, dolphins 'flipping' to be found
• Loomis leaves Gordon’s team to join Petty
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com
Updated: 10:59 a.m. ET Sept. 15, 2005
KANSAS CITY, Mo. - When forced to decide between caring for her 18-month-old granddaughter while her parents were stranded in New Orleans or showing up for her job, Barbara Roberts chose to be a grandma.
And for that, she was fired.
Roberts, 54, had driven 200 miles from her home in Mount Vernon to Columbia on Aug. 27, the Saturday before Hurricane Katrina came ashore, to care for granddaughter Trisana for a couple of days. Her daughter, Tina Roberts, and son-in-law, Chris Hardin, were in New Orleans.
Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
advertisement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was supposed to be a weekend business trip for the couple, and Roberts, who had used up her allotted time off in her assembly line job at Positronic Industries, had planned to be back to work on Monday. Her daughter had even arranged for another baby sitter to spend Sunday night with Trisana so Roberts could get home in time.
But when her son-in-law tried to schedule the flight home on the afternoon of Aug. 27, he was told all flights had been canceled because of the approaching hurricane.
“There was a Category 5 hurricane with a bull’s-eye on our butts, so we called Barb and said we didn’t know when we would be coming home,” said Hardin, a professor at the University of Missouri School of Medicine. “We truly didn’t know what would happen down there.”
With no other relatives in the area to take care of the child, Roberts said she had no choice but to call work on Aug. 29, the day the hurricane hit, and tell her boss that she would be missing a few days.
“There was no decision to make — it was already made,” Roberts said. “My daughter could have died down there. This was family. You don’t walk out on a child — especially my grandbaby.”
'Absolutely unethical'
Hardin and his wife spent several days locked down in a hotel — safe from the chaos that befell most of New Orleans after the levees broke — and finally made it back to Columbia on Thursday, Sept. 1. Shaken up, they asked Roberts to stay one more day.
She says she was told on the phone that she was going to be fired. And on Sept. 6, she was.
“All I know for sure is that I had missed so many hours, and then this came up,” Roberts said. “Usually you have a certain amount of vacation time, and I had used it up. You’re also allowed so many unpaid days off, and I’d used them up, too. Fact is, I missed the allotted time and I got fired.”
In response to questions about Roberts’ termination, Positronic Industries President John Gentry said the company had made cash donations to relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims, but he declined to talk about Roberts. The company manufactures electrical connectors.
Hardin said his mother-in-law’s firing was “absolutely unethical.”
“People speak of family values, and I don’t see what’s a more central family value than a grandmother stepping up in this sort of situation,” he said.
“I sit here trying to imagine what kind of world it would be if grandmothers didn’t make that decision.”
Corp at its worst...