Just got fired, do I have any rights?

Question

I have been working for a dr the past 2 1/2 months.I was the receptionist and was required to work with one other woman up front, and one of my duties was to learn her job (to cover in case she wasn't there).I did my job very well and at first everyone got along fine.Then she started with her narcissism. Constant fault finding, mistakes blown out of proportion, public humiliation, creating false stories and situations, throwing things at me, etc. She would instruct me how to do something and then "tattle" that I was doing it wrong, but I had documentation to prove it was the way she wanted it. I ask questions and never get clear answers, mostly just grunts or am ignored all together.When I am spoken to, it is always with hostility & aggression. She tries to make me look incompetent by piling HER work on me(insurance responsibilities) I have been singled out and treated differently than the other 3 staff members the entire time I've been there.She purposely takes important paperwork, then will put it back like she never had it, again to make it look like I'm incompetent.I know I have been targeted and harassed.Funny thing to add-I am the 7th receptionist they've had in 1 year bc of this woman.I went to my boss consistently with the issues at hand for the past 2 months.He has literally done NOTHING, just keeps telling me we would have a meeting, but we never did.Makes me wonder whats really going on?But instead of doing something about the problems, I had one last talk with him and handed in a resignation letter.We discussed it and decided that we would work on things with the "problem" employee, bc he (exact quote)"cant deal with this ****" (think of how i feel being walked all over everyday!). Then he called me last night and pretty much requested I dont return.No doubt I have been retaliated against for standing up for myself while I was being bullied, I felt like we are all adults, lets act like it, cant we just do our jobs? I looked up what she was doing to me, and it pulled up narcissism. I have contacted an attorney and am going ahead with my unemployment claim until I find other employment, but I live in the country and it took me 4 months to get that job...am I overreacting?

Answer 1

There is nothing in your question that indicates that they did anything illegal by firing you, sorry.  There's no law against someone being a jerk, and no law against a manager being too wimpy to deal with her.  

Answer 2

No, you are not overreacting.  Unfortunately, sometimes jobs in small companies are like that.  They get one employee who makes herself 'indispensable' and creates a negative workplace.  The boss/owner may or may not understand what is going on, but does nothing about it either way.  Sometimes that's because the indispensable employee is a relative, a 'girlfriend', a friend of a friend, difficult to deal with, or simply truly deemed indispensable.  Sometimes it's because the boss is a candy-*** who can't deal with confrontations and firing that person would end up being WWIII.

What it means for you is that you aren't there anymore.  That person wasn't ever going to be fired or quit and you were never going to fit in, she was making that pretty clear.  The boss/owner understands all of that and isn't going to do anything about it.

Were you discriminated against?  Probably.

Is it unfair?  Yes

Is there any remedy?  Probably not.

Will you get unemployment?  Most likely.

I would chalk this one up to experience, get over the anger and move on, feeling immensely relieved that I don't have to work there anymore.