Can they do this to me? please read!?

Question

i have a big problem. ok, im a LOAN ASSOCIATE. thats what i was hired to do. ive been with this company for five months now. a couple of days ago, i had to work the sales floor. not really my duty. but anyway, i had a customer and he wanted to look at some watches. since the watch was over a certain amount, i asked for his ID like i was supposed to. so i gave him the watch so he could take a look at it. the only mistake i did was he asked to look at another watch cause he wanted to compare it and i didnt take the watch back. he ended up running away with three watches. i also didnt know that his ID was fake. now they're going to fire me! something similar happened to a SALES ASSOSCIATE but he didnt ask for ID and he got the item back but he never even got a write up! how is this fair? can anyone give me some advice please. thank you!

Answer 1

they can fire you for any reason whatsoever, unless you have the protection of a contract or a collective bargining agreement.  It may not be fair but chances are you considered an at will employee and you may be terminated for any reason.  

Answer 2

If you were never trained to work as a sales associate, you may be able to claim that you were assigned a job that you did not know how to do; however, you accepted the assignment.  It's a tough spot but remember that in these tough economic times, deciding that you don't do certain jobs in the company will cause you to be terminated; but doing these jobs wrong will also cause you to be terminated.

Answer 3

Unfortunately, because you did make a mistake, it makes it tough for you to dispute it. They probably do have grounds to fire you. If you're in doubt, check the company policy on firing people. If you STILL don't think it's fair, ask a lawyer for their professional opinion. I hate to say it, but the world isn't fair; get used to it.