Woman Sees Husband Off to Iraq, Gets Fired Wed Oct 26, 6:26 PM ET



CALEDONIA, Mich. - A woman who took an unpaid leave of absence from work to see her husband off to war with an Indiana National Guard unit has been fired after failing to show up for her part-time receptionist job the day following his departure.

"It was a shock," said Suzette Boler, a 40-year-old mother of three and grandmother of three. "I was hurt. I felt abandoned by people I thought cared for me. I sat down on the floor and cried for probably two hours."

Officials at her former workplace, Benefit Management Administrators Inc., a Caledonia employee-benefits company, confirmed that Boler was dismissed when she didn't report to work the day after she said goodbye to her husband of 22 years.

"We gave her sufficient time to get back to work," Clark Galloway, vice president of operations for Benefit Management, told The Grand Rapids Press for a story Wednesday.

He added that other factors were involved in the decision, but he declined to elaborate.

On Oct. 16, Boler went with her husband, Army Spc. Jerry Boler, 45, to an Indianapolis-area airfield, where he and others in his National Guard unit gathered to be transported to Fort Dix, N.J. The unit will soon be deployed to Iraq, where he will help guard convoys from insurgent attacks.

Although the Bolers moved to western Michigan 14 years ago, Jerry Boler, a diesel mechanic, decided to remain with his Bloomington, Ind.-based Guard unit, the 150th Field Artillery Regiment.

Suzette Boler had received permission to take off work the week leading up to her husband's departure. As a part-time employee at Benefit Management, she did not receive vacation pay and was not compensated for her time off.

She usually worked Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays answering telephones, entering claims information and greeting visitors and clients. Boler, who said she considers herself a reliable employee with good work habits, was employed at the company for 14 months and earned $9 per hour.

Boler recalled being asked, not ordered, to start back at her job Oct. 17, the day after her husband left. She told her bosses that she would try to return that day but if she could not, she would definitely be back Oct. 18, she said.

When Boler returned home from Indiana on the night of Oct. 16, a few hours after leaving her husband at the airfield, she said she felt drained by the emotional ordeal and decided to return to work Oct. 18.

But on the afternoon of Oct. 17, she received a call from work telling her to come in the following day and get her things because she was being fired. Her pink slip said the reason was she failed to show up for work Oct. 17, a Monday.

"If I had even an inkling that I would be fired for not coming in Monday, I would have been there," she said.

Sounds like it will be a good thing for her. She can get a better job where people will actually care about her.

Listen, when you are an "at will" employee, they can do anything they want. I worked for a national company NYSE listed. I was the top sales guy for 13 quarters wiht over $15M in software sales. Had quad bypass surgery and was out for 90 days on disability. They fired me the day after I returned to work

They fired me the day after I returned to work

That sucked too, didn't it.


I know It happens to a lot of people but it still doesn't mean its not terrible.

No I agree. It is terrible but there is virtually nothing you can do about it. I threatened medical discrimination and they gave me a good severance package but it still sucked.
My point is that unless you are self-employed or have a contract with your employer, you are flying without a net.

Totally agree.
Very hard to foster loyalty in that case. As even being an owner, minority partner , you can walk in and be out before you can say, 'at will'

my boss sucks, makes me work 60 hrs+ a week. bassturd made me miss spring run.

unless you are self-employed or have a contract with your employer, you are flying without a net.
Sometimes even a contract doesn't help. I was with AT&T for 4 years. We were one of the last union offices in the country and had a great contract. Terrific wage, unbelievable bennies and plenty of vaca time. When someone needed or wanted to miss work for a medical reason, with a doctors consent form, the employee could miss work and even collect disability pay. However, under either the contract or the way the law is written, once an employee "used up" all of his or her FMLA days, he or she was required to then use vaca time to stay out of work, even if a doctor said the employee could not work. Once all vaca time was used, the absence was unexcused and the employee had to meet with an attendance manager. First occurance: verbal warning. Second occurance: written warning. Third: Dismissal. This held true even if the employee or employee's immediate family had life threatening illness.
When I started there, we had over 800 employees in our office. By the time I left, we were down to barely over 300, most gone through attrition and not replaced.
The moral of the story: If you work for AT&T don't have a fatal heart attack without checking with your attendance manager first to see if you have any FMLA days left!
:laughs: