Forced to Resign
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Forced to Resign
I feel that I was unjustly forced to resign from the Post Office last month. When I received my first check from USPS I told the Post Master that the hours were wrong. I worked 6 days a week for no less than 8 hours a day and my check was only for 45 hours. He told me it was correct and it was all downhill from there. My hours went down and the time I had to come in was pushed back. A couple of times I got all the way to work for them to say I have the day off. I was given more mail than the paperwork said, the mail I did get was out of order or set up backwards, I never cashed my own mail except 1 time training with a carrier on her route. I would get packages and certified letters that was not on the route I was doing. And most of the days after that I was told to come in at 12 which meant I was delivering mail at 7 pm On 08/15-08/20, I was admitted in hospital for CHF and pneumonia. Upon my return to work I was told that I needed more training and that I was not moving fast enough. I noticed that I was getting more mail than the paperwork stated, so I started writing down all the streets I delivered to and the packages and told the Supervisor that I was getting more mail than the paperwork stated. She said I should have noticed sooner and told somebody. I told her this is why it’s looking like I can’t do the job and she told me to call if I have an issue just walked away. On September 18, 2019 I had my final review. And was told that I needed to resign. I expressed to the Post Master that I was getting more mail than I was supposed to get. On the paperwork it would say that it is an hour worth of work but it’s actually more like 2 and a half hours worth of mail. I also told him that sometimes I do deliver everything and get back on time. He said it wasn’t consistent enough. I told him if I was getting more mail than the paperwork stated then it would make it look like I’m not moving fast enough. He said I could resign or be fired but he was not going to keep me. And if he has to fire me I would not be able to work for USPS in the future so I resigned. Is there anything that I can do?
Asked on October 24, 2019 under Employment Labor Law, Michigan
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 4 years ago | Contributor
Unfortunately, while you consider that your resignation was "forced," in the law's eyes, it was not: you chose voluntarily to resign, to avoid what you considered worse consequences. Having made the choice to resign, you cannot sue or take legal action over it. You could have refused to resign, allowed them to terminate you (if they could; i.e. you were not protected by civil service-type rules) and then, if you though the firing wrongful, could have brought a wrongful termination case. But when you resign, because it is by choice, you cannot challenge it.
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