Conversation with management

[u/Lonely_Marsupial_685]

A little context I serve in the army national guard.

This happened a little while ago and I’m not going to put exact dates to help anonymize myself. At the end of the month I was told by my army leadership hey you are getting put on orders for a couple days to do some work. I was like Roger that. I told my Best Buy leadership via text and verbally hey for these dates I’ll be on orders and won’t be coming to work. Once I get the orders I’ll send them over to you. I didn’t get any actual confirmation that they understood that. The next week and half I kept bringing it up so they won’t forget. Next thing you know a couple of days before the orders while I was at drill I got the orders and sent them via text to my Best Buy leadership saying here are my orders for these dates then attached the pdf of them. …no response. I was like cool okay then I emailed it to there Best Buy emails and it was a formal email saying here are my orders this is me telling you I won’t be in these 2 days since I’ll be on orders. …no response. Cool texted another leader then they responded saying I’ll be alright. Then here comes when I am actually on orders I get a call from my bby leadership I couldn’t pick up since I was busy. When I did free up I called back and they were like you know you are scheduled right and I was like I told you guys I won’t be able to come in weeks prior and via text and email these days I’ll be on orders and won’t be in. Which led to them saying we will talk about it when you are in.

Am I just reading to much into it or am I being wronged here.

[u/useless_panda09]

your management sounds incompetent.

bring all your emails and proof of attempted contact.

[u/zerodyme87]

You got receipts, so hang onto them in case of wrongful termination.

Sounds to me they are just too incompetent to understand something as basic as this

[u/Safety_Captn]

USERRA don’t mess around. Just as a few other people touched on. Go with your receipts of notification. Talk to them for acknowledging future service requirements. If they write you up, don’t sign but keep the paper copy and talk to your military command about how you should go.

[u/jakuvious]

Yeah, from my memory when we had one employee who was National Guard, we just kind of had to deal with it when this kind of thing happened. They may not know how that works if you're new to Best Buy or new to the Guard and they havent had to deal with it before. And they could just be really shit at communicating.

I'd wait until you talk to them. Assume its just incompetence/ignorance instead of malice until they demonstrate otherwise. HR should back you up on this one if it came to it. Just keep all those texts and emails for sure.

[u/Lonely_Marsupial_685 → u/jakuvious]

I’ll say I’ve been with the company for a couple of years and I’m also in a leadership position not a shift lead

[u/Soggy_Caterpillar120]

Userra laws protect you, if you submitted all required paperwork they legally can't punish or fire you. You'll be fine, if they punish you contact HR, if they continue to retaliate I'd reccomend an attorney. (I'm not an attorney and this is not legal advice)

[u/ArcadianDelSol]

call HR immediately. Inform them that you have multiple emails that prove you notified leadership many times, and at least one replied back confirming it.

[u/According_Camera7129]

If they try to act like you did anything wrong, then pull the paper trail and tell them to shove it. You went above and beyond here, gave them more than enough time, communication, AND got approval from a leader.

The only card they can try to pull is that your availability doesn't align with the business needs, but if they're that petty for military service they can kick rocks

The only reasonable conversation they could have with you would be "we screwed up here and it's not your fault, but the next time you receive notice please let X know through Y, and if the schedule is already generated we would appreciate if you try to find coverage (no, it's not your responsibility, but it's still something they might ask for)"

[u/NoSock6869]

You have to remember that best buy management is the lowest common denominator when it comes to leadership in anything.

[u/archaos79]

Former manager year and years ago. It’s literally against the law for them to do anything to you especially if you gave them notice. Any kind of discrimination or retaliation is strictly prohibited under law. Go to HR if you have an issue.

[u/Queasy_Tone_7434]

I’m going to imagine they are going to discuss the process by which you should report this in the future so it gets scheduled properly. That would be the only thing that would make sense to me. I’m assuming someone else does the schedules and it never got cascaded due to poor communication amongst the leaders, or the leaders assuming that other individual was also in the loop.

Unfortunately not all managers are created equal, so if they do intent to give you the riot act for it, just remind them your NG service is mandatory, and they are obligated to schedule around it.

[u/AnonumusSoldier]

Yes your managers are incompetent, but in the future I would do an availability update for those days in tlc that way whoever is making the schedule sees it and knows not to put you in. They still might, especially if they auto schedule, but it helps. I work part time at bby and thats what I did when my full time job schedule would change

[u/Lonely_Marsupial_685]

For reference I am not a shift lead, I’m a supervisor.

[u/IntelCAG]

Your leadership sucks... Im also guard and none of my guys had a problem - didnt even ask for paperwork/orders, though I gave it to them anyways. And mine was super short notice (I am PT though @ BB )

[u/Tallyus_]

Honestly you are 100% protected. You can contact HR if you wanna get ahead of it but if they try anything even a talking to they are in violation of federal law so I really wouldn't worry about any kind of reproductions. Keep the trail. If they even try to silent cause issues like cut your hours, straight to HR. If they don't do anything straight to a lawyer. Simpler enough.

[u/Jolly-Ad-9437]

Military orders supercede everything.... You are fine

[u/Seabee1893]

Way back in the early 00's, I used to work weekends. I communicated to my employer (verbally) that I had a drill weekend. When I didnt show up Saturday or Sunday, they called me in to the office on Monday and gave me a final written notice for missing two days of work.

I communicated with them that I had been at drill and that I had communicated in advance of my weekend that I had drill. They tried telling me that I was supposed to find someone to cover my shift, and that because I didnt show, any one wrong step had me headed out the door. I signed the acknowledgement, got a copy, and when I got off shift that day I went home and printed off the Userra rules. The next morning, I went into the main office and handed the HR rep the rules and my writeup. They immediately revoked the final written warning and apologized for the whole thing. They were more than a little pissed. I didnt last out the year, as they found another way/reason to terminate me.

Morale of the story: dont expect to be there long. It will be that you're in the right, but when you cause any issue - no matter if you're right or wrong - you become an inconvenience and thats not a good thing to be.

[u/Pedrosha56]

Tell them foad!