So here's the letter i'm sending to my former employer (former as of yesterday, for the last three months). All names are redacted, all events are otherwise just as described. The only truth I am omitting here is that i *did* eat some of the lady's food, but just one little animal cracker and two life-savers (e.g, no way she could have actually noticed them missing)

I feel that ____ had no grounds upon which to terminate my employment, for reasons I was never given a chance to explain. This e-mail, and the physical letter which shall accompany it, are my statements for the record in protest of this unfounded action.

The "discussions" detailed on March 11th and March 14th were in regards to my first incidents with one employee of _____ in particular, Ms. ______, with whom I initially had a dispute about seating. Due to the lack of seating provided to me as a trainee, I assumed that any available seat was free for me to use, pending instruction otherwise from management. The events discussed on March 11th were in regards to this first instance of contact with Ms. _____, as well as subsequent matters stemming from this first incident. Ms. ______'s desk had temporarily been moved onto the training row due to re-carpeting, and in my eagerness to be trained, to do the job I had been hired to do, I took a desk next to her, after confirming the absence of that employee for the day. It was at this point that she proceeded to loudly exclaim her displeasure with this state of affairs, implicating _______ (my trainer at the time) for causing disruption to her work. I believe that her yelling at me was untowards of her, and that if she had simply gone to a team lead and brought them in to remove me, I would gladly comply, but I interpreted her action as mere venting of her anger and resolved not to move that day.

On subsequent days, I will admit to choosing to sit at Ms. _____'s desk, because it was the desk that I usually sat at before the carpeting had commenced. During my time at her desk, which was littered with foodstuffs that i moved around merely to be able to engage my work, I also regularly unplugged her CD player, which she left plugged in and running presumably all night long (wasting electricity on the company's dime). I also unplugged the CD player because she placed it on the trash-can, interfering with my assigned duties (and placing of items on the trash can was deemed against the rules according to an e-mail distributed at one point that I can no longer recall).

Clearly my sitting there and maneuvering her things in accordance with my need to do my job, as well as my prior defiance of her anger, must have angered her more, as the March 11th "discussion" between myself, Mr. _____ and Ms. _____ included accusations of me eating her food and destroying her property, neither of which I did. It is important to note here that at no time during this discussion did Mr. ____ and Ms. _____ express any sentiment that I had done anything wrong aside from sitting at her desk in the first place. I did not, and do not, consider that event to constitute a verbal warning according to _____' established disciplinary procedures.

The "discussion" on March 14th was yet more informal, between myself and Mr. _____, where he assured me that I was not in trouble and that things had merely been said about me taking things from other people's desks, and leaving a mess at someone else's workspace. The "mess" here referred to was in the rear of the office where the Folders team worked to recycle folders, and where many trainees also worked, and said mess occurred because I was summoned away from that place for training which I assumed would be briefer than it was, and ended up lasting the rest of the night. I explained as much to Mr. _____ and he seemed to understand.

Thus it is that both "discussions, " that were cited in my letter of termination were not disciplinary in nature, or that if they were, I was not informed or did not intuit that nature, meaning that the company has acted in bad faith towards me in regards to the disciplinary process.

This then leads to the current incident that led to my erroneous termination. One day last week I was in line at the workload center, and innocuously inspecting an odd wire that I saw on the desk next to Ms. ______. Immediately Ms. _____ started to take disciplinary matters into her own hand and loudly, verbally rebuke me for touching things on other peoples' desks. I urged her to calm, at which point she told me to "get a life" and I admit to losing my temper after that, being the "verbal altercation" in question. A team lead by the name of _____ defused the incident, and later I went to Mr. _____ to report Ms. _____'s untoward conduct. I assumed that it was understood that I bore no fault for that incident, and was never informed that I was judged to share blame before my summary erroneous termination. There was a further confrontation with Ms. ______ the following Friday, in full witness of Mr. _____ and Mr. _____, in which I remained perfectly calm and told her that if she had a problem with me, she could take it up with Mr. ______.

Thus my termination by the company came as quite a surprise to me, as I was not aware I had been accused of taking things from other people's desks at any point prior to that, and will certainly attest to the fact that I never took items from people's desks. If the company received word of such from Ms. _______, I am shocked to find that the company can take her at her word without prior corroboration, and if it was not merely her, I am disappointed that I was not able to see the evidence against me to provide a proper explanation for what is obviously a grave misunderstanding.

I feel that the company has acted disingenuously and in bad faith towards the disciplinary process, either misrepresenting verbal warnings as innocuous discussions, or retroactively changing these innocuous discussions into verbal warnings to terminate me for reasons I still do not quite understand. I am sorry that my relationship with _____ had to end on these terms, and I am sorry a simple dispute with an employee with a long history of behavioral problems has led to my termination. However, I refute the narrative of events as the company has put forward, and am disappointed that _____ did not live up to its own standards for integrity by misrepresenting the disciplinary process and terminating me for false cause.

Well, the lady in question seems to clearly still live in the world of High School. She seems to think the world revolves around her and whenever or wherever she is people must bid to her doings. (At work and by way of this letter do I perceive this.) So I completely understand why you seem to have a problem.

But, what do you want the people of VGC to say? That we think she's acting ridiculous or to say that your letter seems well written? (Because it is.)

Nothing in particular. I just thought it was one of those interesting, ridiculous stories that i won't have the chance to tell too many real-life people (who are more likely to judge me for getting fired)

Well, based on what you wrote (which I'm sure is pretty un-biased), the firing of you doesn't seem right. I don't get it, really.

I really wish you would have just plugged in random names. Other than that sounds like typical work day... without the firing of course.

Oh man I work with such a woman. She is a tyrant. Not work with her under the same employer. Her company is a client of ours, so my correspondence with her is very frequent. The people at my office consider it a victory any day she does not email or call. Even her own colleagues say she is a drama queen.

Maybe she was a Sony fan and therefore despised you?

Seems shitty. Unfortunately being new, you don't get the benefit of the doubt.

This makes me sad. Damn it, people are so evil. I don't understand how they can be so cold-hearted.

I still think you have a shot with her..