I got terminated from my job for purchasing something using my employee discount and putting it on Social Media for resale. I had been with the company for almost 8 years without any problems. I think it was unfair and should have been handled differently. Does anyone know if I can sue them for wrongful termination?

You can try, but you will lose. Quickly.

"It's not in the handbook" is the lamest excuse for doing something that is clearly unethical. Does ANY handbook have a prohibition on peeing in the hallway? No? So that means you can't be disciplined for peeing in the hallway?

What you did was unethical, period. You took advantage of an employee perk and tried to profit from it. Now, I know that a bunch of people are going to scream "HR sucks!!" and "all companies do is screw over employees, so employees should do unethical things!", but the fact remains that you unethically took advantage of something the company provided to you and profited from it, or attempted to.

You have literally zero legal case here.

Respectfully, I think what is more worrying is your lack of self awareness. The whole point of a company discount is an incentive reward exclusively for their employees therefore your decision to resale on social media to make profit signals a lack of integrity and judgement. Rather than finding a lawyer to sue why don’t you use this time for reflection to see how you can do better. On a different point, if you need a reference from this company for another role, there is a chance it may not help you. You can try suing but I think a a lawyer would see this case as a way of making a quick buck knowing you have no case. It would good use of your energy to reflect of why you made such a poor decision that has now cost you your job and how you can do better in future. The key is learn the lesson and don’t repeat this type of poor judgement.

How did they find out??

most places have it in their handbook that doing something like this is against their policy . Sorry this happened but you got caught. now own up to it , take your licks , learn from it and keep moving forward

If it’s not in writing you have a case don’t listen to these people. Companies lose lawsuits for these things all the time. I would recommend not posting more information online.

I disagree with Director 2. There are people who work in office that pretend to work and get away with it. The mistrust you have in the staff to WFH says more about you than them. The OP is an example of someone lacking integrity. There will always be a percentage of people who do lack integrity no matter whether they're in office or WFH. Try to hire better, communicate more.

Not sure of the details of this termination , but I would hope that your termination came after a warning for the first time . One and done is pretty harsh . I do agree with the HR statement with respect to it is a company perk and it should not be abused .

Depends on what state you live in. If you live in an "At Will" state you can pretty much be fired for anything unless it violates discrimination laws. What state are you in?

I'm perplexed ..you stole from them then turned around to sell that product as a means to benefit monetarily. From the company's point of view, you stole money which incurred a loss-all when they entrusted you with an expense card and you abused it. There is no case for you. It is not wrongful termination. You are a thief and need to pay them back.

No shot. Not only is that highly uncool, but guaranteed to violate company policy. Everywhere I've had a meaningful employee discount it was a big no no. If this was your first time I would agree they should have warned you/written you up to make you aware, especially after being there 8 years sometimes you forget about policy stuff if you've never done it or considered it, but if this was at all past your first time and you'd been warned before you should have known better.

I just don’t understand why a lot of people needs to post a lot about themselves!! It’s just simply attention deficit - maybe use it as a lesson learned!!

OP posted reselling on social media. If whatever the item was is something that has the company’s branding or is something proprietary to the company, Lego for example, of course they’d get fired for that. Especially if it’s known they work for said company.

You will need edivence if you are planing on sueing. Speak with your lawyer first to get information. He or she will tell you if it's worth sueing or not..

Just make sure you prepared evidence information you have. Whatever you have that might help.

Such as: baking statement, reports, etc.....

Not sure which State you reside in but some States have an "At-will" policy wherein they don't need a reason to release you from employment. You may want to check to see if your State has such a policy.
I'm thinking though that after being there 8 years why you didn't know what you did was not acceptable.

I had worked at a large business supply company for quite some time and made several personal purchases for myself. A friend had an upcoming birthday, and his wife asked if I could possibly help her with a large purchase with any sort of discount. I approached purchasing and asked if I might make that purchase for a friend. They had no problem with it. But it wasn't to resale. I don't know the circumstances in your situation, but I would always check for ethical and professional reasons.

How much profit are we talking about? It sounds like the company was looking for an excuse to fire you.

You all are silly. After purchase, it is the employee’s property. Nothing about “common sense“ dictates that a company should be able to tell one what to do with their own property.

IMHO your long tenure with the company and your presumed higher position in the management chain is working AGAINST you. You are simply expected to know better and be held to a higher standard.

Could the company have handled this differently? Sure. They could have given you a slap in the wrist and let this slip with a warning. Or they could have terminated you like they did. I am almost certain that you have signed an employment contract that gives the company sole and final decision on any disciplinary action. Short of any collective bargain agreement, or allegations of discrimination or other unlawful reason that actually drive the termination decision, a court has no reason to step in and review this decision. Talk to a lawyer if you must but I think your case is slimmer than a public restroom toilet paper.

If you live in Ohio it's going to be very hard. You can still try to file for unemployment. But if they had it in their policy somewhere that you can't do that they can try to fight that too. Ohio is a right to work state. They can literally fire you for anything. But if the reason for firing you is not part of their policy that you can get paid unemployment. That's pretty crappy though after being there 8 years. What kind of employee discount do you get usually you only see like enough to cover tax maybe a little more.

We let go of several people for doing this. They found huge deals used their employee discount and was reselling items. Sadly, if they just bought the items without discount (it was only 10% off) they would have been fine. What is crazy is they worked in the same department in charge of doing these audits so on top of everything they knew better.

I'm going to go on a limb here and ask....why were you trying to sell it?

I was not always a delivery driver. So you took advantage of a perk and decided you no longer needed it so decided to sell it at market value ~ see where I am going with this? How and who was monitoring your social media account? Or did you say something to a trusted?? Coworker? See where I am going with this? Is it your word against theirs? Your actions labeled unethical but where they? Good luck from a former employee .