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Unbelievable

wxcrazytwo

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Grandma fired for missing work during Katrina
Woman took care of granddaughter since parents stuck in New Orleans
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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.

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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...
 
[Moderator Mode]

As per forum rules...

8. Copyrighted Material - All material posted from copyrighted material MUST contain a link to the original work. Please do not post entire articles. Proper format is to paraphrase the contents of an article and/or post relevant excerpts and then link to the rest. Best bet is to always reference the original source. Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html

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cnredd said:
[Moderator Mode]

As per forum rules...

8. Copyrighted Material - All material posted from copyrighted material MUST contain a link to the original work. Please do not post entire articles. Proper format is to paraphrase the contents of an article and/or post relevant excerpts and then link to the rest. Best bet is to always reference the original source. Title 17, Chapter 1, Section 107 http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html


[/Moderator Mode]

sorry totally forgot..



http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9353052/
 
i certainly dont agree with the business decision, but it seemingly is just that, a business decision, they arent held to humanitarian decisions...
 
phasetim said:
i certainly dont agree with the business decision, but it seemingly is just that, a business decision, they arent held to humanitarian decisions...

But should they. Corps in lawsuits are held to the same level, if not higher than people are and they treated as a person also.
 
wxcrazytwo said:
But should they. Corps in lawsuits are held to the same level, if not higher than people are and they treated as a person also.

No they aren't :lol:

A business has every right to fire someone if they don't perform their duties. Showing up to work is one of them. And we have no idea about the situation. Maybe the woman didn't give notice. Maybe she is constantly not showing up. Maybe she sucked at her job and they were looking for a way to get rid of her. All of these are legal reasons to terminate someone. A businesses job is to succeed. Not to coddle their employees. That's why we have government. To make sure they "play nice". Although, ours doesn't monitor that as much as I wish they would.
 
Kelzie said:
No they aren't :lol:

A business has every right to fire someone if they don't perform their duties. Showing up to work is one of them. And we have no idea about the situation. Maybe the woman didn't give notice. Maybe she is constantly not showing up. Maybe she sucked at her job and they were looking for a way to get rid of her. All of these are legal reasons to terminate someone. A businesses job is to succeed. Not to coddle their employees. That's why we have government. To make sure they "play nice". Although, ours doesn't monitor that as much as I wish they would.

yes we do, and the circumstances warranted such a reprieve. Your response is as callous as the company that fired her..:roll:
 
wxcrazytwo said:
yes we do, and the circumstances warranted such a reprieve. Your response is as callous as the company that fired her..:roll:

Yes we do what? You think the company who fired her is going to be penalized? No, trust me they're not.

My guess is they fired her for a good reason. But we'll probably never know.

And I am not being callous. Just realistic. You can't run a business off of good will. Sometimes you have to do crappy things. It's called management.
 
Kelzie said:
Yes we do what? You think the company who fired her is going to be penalized? No, trust me they're not.

My guess is they fired her for a good reason. But we'll probably never know.

And I am not being callous. Just realistic. You can't run a business off of good will. Sometimes you have to do crappy things. It's called management.

No its called business, and I understand that. The decision should have been made afterwards, and not that the time it was made. I forgot every company has good reason to fire people, even when it comes to family values. And yes you can run a business on good will, you just have to manage it as such..
 
wxcrazytwo said:
No its called business, and I understand that. The decision should have been made afterwards, and not that the time it was made. I forgot every company has good reason to fire people, even when it comes to family values. And yes you can run a business on good will, you just have to manage it as such..

You run a business to make money. Not for good will. If a person is constantly losing money for the company, good business practice would be to fire them. Bad business practice would be to let them stay because they have a family to support. Hey I don't like it either. It's cold hearted and cruel. But that's the way it works.
 
wxcrazytwo said:
yes we do, and the circumstances warranted such a reprieve. Your response is as callous as the company that fired her..:roll:


I don't think it's callous. It's very screwed up, but it is a fact of life. A business exists to provide a service and to make a profit. If a worker's personal life interferes with this, then he/she may be fired. Now, calling the supervisor "callous" could very well be true, but he does have an obligation to the business, other workers, stock owners, board members, etc.
 
>>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.<<

I don't know that the airport was shut down two days before the hurricane hit. Has anyone confirmed that? Katrina had barely begun it's turn north on the 27th and was still below 24.5N which is hundreds of miles south of New Orleans. I believe flights were still going in and out through Sunday. They don't shut down airports until it is absolutely necessary. There were certainly other means to get out of the city to where another flight could have been arrianged

>>and finally made it back to Columbia on Thursday, Sept. 1. Shaken up, they asked Roberts to stay one more day.<<

Hmmmmmmmm

Bet there is more to the story than what is posted or what the paper reported.
 
Stinger said:
>>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.<<

I don't know that the airport was shut down two days before the hurricane hit. Has anyone confirmed that? Katrina had barely begun it's turn north on the 27th and was still below 24.5N which is hundreds of miles south of New Orleans. I believe flights were still going in and out through Sunday. They don't shut down airports until it is absolutely necessary. There were certainly other means to get out of the city to where another flight could have been arrianged

>>and finally made it back to Columbia on Thursday, Sept. 1. Shaken up, they asked Roberts to stay one more day.<<

Hmmmmmmmm

Bet there is more to the story than what is posted or what the paper reported.

Guaranteed there's more. I don't know about closed airports. But I can promise all flights were booked. I had a friend trying to fly out of Texas two days before that couldn't get a flight.
 
Kelzie said:
Guaranteed there's more. I don't know about closed airports. But I can promise all flights were booked. I had a friend trying to fly out of Texas two days before that couldn't get a flight.

The paper quotes him as saying on the 27th all fights were cancelled when in fact flights left until the afternnoon of the 28th.

As I said I bet there is more to this story and a lot that raises red flags.
 
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