After 7 yrs of hard work and dedication to a nonprofit agency that I truly love. I got terminated for some one's else negligence. I'm the overnight counselor for House "A" in the Passaic county/Clifton office. On Tues March 30th I receive a surprising phone call from the Director of Passaic County "Kim" informing me that since I have not been at work since 3/12, she is terminating me from my position for abandoning my shift. I was supposedly a no call, no show for over 2wks and she was calling me to make it official. I was completely shocked! How can someone be terminated if the house supervisor "Nana" asked me to leave and return back on 4/14 for CPR training for re-certification @9am in the Cranford office. Jacklyn, Nana's boss also knew that I would be returning for re-certification training on 4/14. I even have a copy of the schedule of who would be covering my shift during my absent. I knew Ojo would cover me during the Months of March and April Sun - Tues from 11pm-7am and Carlos would cover the remaining week Wed & Thurs 11pm-7am. I have emails confirming all of this. You would think if you see someone not at work the first day you would make a call to see what had happened to that individual. No calls were ever made to me because this was planned in advance. The problem is, the two supervisors Nana & Jacklyn never ran anything by the Director Kim. So, when Ojo did not come to cover the shift as planned other staff members had to cover it for him. Kim couldn't understand why she was paying all these other employees time and a half if I'm supposed to be at work. Instead of Jacklyn telling Kim the truth about my wear a bouts she lied and stated that she have not heard nor seen me for 2 weeks. Based on her answer, Kim terminated my position. I'm not mad at Kim for making the decisions that she made as a director for abandonment of work. However, I'm upset for her not seeking the truth. If I'm informing her that I have proof to clear my innocent she should have let me present my case. Instead she took Jacklyn word and terminated me instead. She further stated that she had the approval of H.R and was going forth with it. When I tried to reason with her over the phone, She made a comment saying, "I thought you would be happy to be fired since you were going to go on FMLA soon anyway." In my opinion, one thing had nothing to do with the other. This was just wrong. I doubt H.R benefits specialist Sandra Auten ever knew my side of the story. She just did what Kim told her to do and sent the termination papers via mail to me. I wonder if H.R ever knew the truth. I wonder if they knew the type of evidence that I had in my possession to clear my name. No one bothered to find out. It was easier to let me go. A mis-communication that could have been resolved was swept under the rug. Instead, I'm out of a job and have 2 kids (age 5 & 9) to feed. Worst of all, Kim back dated my last date of work which was 3/12 and canceled my benefits. I had near 80hrs vacation time that was ceased. Now, I have all these medical bills that have accumulated between my family and I from 3/12 - 4/2 that SERV is not willing to cover through benefits. I have 80hrs vacation pay that was owed to me that SERV did not pay out. I've been without any income now for 2 months. I have bills piling, rent to be paid, food to purchase, daycare to pay, gas for car and no income. How can a company get away with this? What are my legal rights? How do I fight this wrongful termination without a lawyer? How is one to survive under these conditions? Where is the law that protects me from this unfairness. If I had some money I would surely seek a lawyer to find out. Today, I'm penny pinching for a single family of three. Seven years of service down the drain. On Thurs 4/29/10 at 9am I will find out my destiny during a 3 way conference call with the unemployment office auditor and SERV Behavioral center to see if I'm cleared to receive unemployment benefits. What a shame!