I was an employee at Cook's Pest Control - Dothan district. I was married in October 2013, shortly after they changed my name that I received my checks & everything in WITHOUT MY PERMISSION. Considering Cook's doesn't have direct deposit, this almost caused me a lot of problems, no-one would cash my check except the bank & even they were skeptical about doing it at first as I had not gotten my name changed yet. Cook's did NOT even ask me if I was going to change my name, I could have been keeping my last name. At first everything was great, then I guess my newness wore off. The two other women I worked in the office started treated me with a lot of disrespect, piled so much work on me that I couldn't finish, among other things. I have no doubt that this was intentional by the way I was being treated & things that were said to me. Plus the numerous employees that told me I was not they first person they ran off.
When I was out of work, they would not do any of my work for me, regardless of deadlines or importance. When I was out for 2 weeks for surgery I came back & had to finish all my work in half the time.
*Decisions they made that affected me were never discussed with me. I came back from my lunch hour one day & there was a note on my desk telling me that my lunch hour had changed effective the next day.
*They would not come to me about work-related problems, mistakes, etc. Instead they would talk loudly about them just to make sure I could hear.
*They gossiped, complained, & talked bad about everyone there, including the district manager. This created a very poor work environment.
*They would get attitudes with not just me, but other employees for no apparent reason. One of the older supervisor's there expressed to me that they did it to him & he did not know why or feel he deserved it. I felt the worse for him. But several employee's said the same.
*They were constantly telling me to do things one way, then changing it without notifying me I guess, because next thing I know, I was doing it wrong.
*They were constantly doing things like eating at their desk, but I could not. Company policy Im sure is that nobody is supposed to anyways.
*They would make decisions without even asking Sid. I was out during closeout & was responsible for 78'ing the accounts to send to collections. Not only was it not done, but when I got back & asked if I needed to go ahead & send them to collections & was told no to wait til next closeout. A few days later something was said to me by one of the managers & they asked Sid which said I needed to go ahead & do them.
*Any work they didn't want to do was handed to me, but they wouldn't do anything for me, even if it involved a customer. I was locked out of Easypay & asked if one of them could take a customer's payment. They refused & told me to write down their info & put it in later. A lot of customers do not like this, & it should have never been handled that way. I would never have told them no on something like this, & Im sure I would have Gotten in trouble if I would have.
*They had put so much work on me I could not even finish it all, yet they had time to stand around & talk, take personal phone calls, go outside & visit with children & such, check Ricky Stokes news, check the weather, etc. Not that I am complaining about being busy & having work to do, but everyone else should too, not just me. Or they could have used some of that time to take things back off of me so I could finish, but instead they were piling more on me intentionally, knowing I wouldn't finish.
*They never told me when anyone was going to be out on vacation, even them, even though I had to do their work when they were out.
I talked with Sid, the district manager, on 2 separate occasions about these issues & NOTHING was done as these things continued & some got worse.
On July 31st & Aug 1st I called out sick. Aug 1st being close-out Sid got mad & hung up on me!
When I got back on Monday, I was informed I was out of time, which I was already aware of. But treated like it was a problem, even though I had to use most of my time for surgery & recovery. He could choose to work with me on this but instead I was made to sign a paper that if I was out anymore, further action would be taken. With my continuing health problems this is unacceptable as I had dr appointments I need to go to & would not be able to in fear of losing my job. So I told him them that maybe the best thing for me to do was to start looking for another job because this was unfair. He said Yes, That was fine.
A few days later I was asked by Sid when my last day was. I told him that I have NOT put in a resignation yet, I would let him know when I was ready I would put in a notice. I was informed at that time that he would think about it & He would give me a date that was to be my last day.
A few days later I was approached & forced to sign up for an office specialist meeting in which I would have had to attend with the other two ladies in the office that I was having all the problems with. Again awful unfair, but was told it was mandatory. In which I expressed concerns that there were a lot of the office specialists that didn't attend the year before, in which he had no answer for, just insisted it was mandatory. I signed it but told him I didn't figure I would be there that long anyways & that I was still waiting on him for a last day. He then took it back & claims he was trying to be fair & give me a chance to turn in a date that was better for me. I again assured him that I had NOT turned in a notice yet, that it could be 2 weeks or 2 months before I was ready, but if he was to find a replacement before I was ready he could just fire me. Well that wasn't good enough, I needed to think about it over the weekend & give hima definite date on Monday, I was being forced to give a resignation even though I was not ready. I expressed how unfair I was being treated & he asked how. I told him I complained about the problems in the office & nothing was done, I can't even go to a dr appointment for the rest of the year without being afraid of what might happen, & now I am being forced to resign. The only one he said anything about was the being out, I was told maybe I should have handle my time better!. In which I reminded him of my surgery & all. Sid did not even have the decency to pull me into his office for all this, it was done in front of the other 2 ladies in the office plus one or two more employees. Very unprofessional since I was crying & everything from being so upset & poorly treated.
Only out 5 days sick! the rest was for Dr. appointments, vacation before surgery, & surgery. I cannot control having to go to the Dr or having surgery, so though my PTO time was used, it should have been understandable. I handled my time the best I could & did not waste any of it. And even though I didn't always have a Dr excuse for being out, I couldn't always afford to pay to go to the Dr. since I was the only one working. Sid also knew this, but no sympathy for me at all I guess. He always was concerned about everyone else & their families & problems but never mine.
Now I have just been denied unemployment because "I quit voluntarily". No I did not quit voluntarily, being told to put in a resignation is not quitting, that is getting fired but trying to cover his butt. I am pretty sure that a boss is not supposed to ask you to resign, that is a voluntary action which I did not do. I have my rights to look for another job if I want & turn in a 2 weeks or maybe more notice if I do, but again, I did not. Why would I quit voluntarily when I was the only one in the household that had a job? I hope that this can be taken care of, I am going to appeal it. Again, Thanks for your time.
I have also been told by several previous customers that the service was horrible as well, which I knew anyways, I had an inside look at it all & wouldn't recommend them to anyone!
