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canaryatlaw · 6 years

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alright peeps, it’s late so let’s get going here. today was pretty good! I feel like I’m still mentally adjusting to actually working five days a week lol since law school was a lot more varied as far as days went, then there was bar prep and then I did nothing for like a month, so the whole 9-5 thing is still fairly new. But I woke up to my alarm at 7 (like every other weekday), got ready and headed out. I was looking at my plan for the day and trying to figure out who I wanted to shadow, I saw I was on the dep in the afternoon for one of the lawyers that was in court this morning (I don’t think I’ve specified a nickname for her but I like her a lot, she’s only like 3 years older than me but seems to have her shit together and is a pretty competent attorney haha so she’s fun) so I texted her and asked if I could shadow her, she said yes but her first case wasn’t till 9:30, I got to the courthouse at like 8:45 (around when I get there every day) so I went to the Starbucks under the courthouse (have I explained the whole pedway thing? probably at some point) and hung out till like 9:15, at which point I went upstairs only to find a MASSIVE line for security, like it made a U around the whole lobby, way longer than it’s ever been before, apparently due to a large group of some people on some sort of field trip basically. so that was fun, but I still made it to the courtroom before the lawyer lol and was told to get a hold on the case, so I did, and then I ended up talking to OPC and he was saying totally different things and our lawyer was like well can you step up? and I was like ahhhhhhh I feel like that would not go well because he’s saying something different which will probably devolve into an argument in front of the judge and like that’s a /bad/ idea, so she called me and they spoke over the phone, and I convinced him to let us pass the case until she got there, which he was not particularly happy about but agreed to, and she got there not too long after the call started so that was good, but of course at that point it was almost time for the 10:00 am case she had in the courtroom on the floor below, so I got sent off to figure that one out, but fortunately another lawyer from our firm was free and able to step up on the case so I didn’t have to finagle some sort of peace until she could make it there. so that was a bit more exciting than expected, and then once that was over there were three more in a nearby courtroom, so I just drafted orders (they were out of carbon of course so I had to write each one out separately) until all of those were covered. the dep was at 1 and we had to prep the client beforehand so instead of going back to the office we stayed at the courthouse, initially up by the courtrooms where lawyer was working on something, then asked me to take a look and tell her what I thought. the thing ended up being a letter to some board of judicial authority recounting an incident from a trial her and the other lawyer who covered her case today were on yesterday where the judge was just a fucking nightmare and like, very clearly violated the clients due process rights like, BADLY, (basically defense can motion for a directed verdict after plaintiff gives all their evidence saying they haven’t proved it beyond the standard of proof, but this judge prompted then granted a DV in the middle of plaintiff’s evidence, which is like, absurd) and just a recounting of all of that craziness so I looked it over and added a few commas (her grammar was actually totally on point besides that, MUCH better than the majority of people I end up proofing for) (no offense to them at all most people aren’t great with grammar and that’s fine) and suggested she reorder a few things and switch to first person throughout instead of switching between first and third, so she did that and then sent it to one of the partners and a few others to see what they thought. After that we went back to the same Starbucks to grab food, I got one of their grilled cheese’s (surprise surprise) which are actually rather good, so we sat and ate before walking up the pedway then across the street to the building the dep was in. this was like, a super complicated case, way different than most of our cases where we’re just the plaintiff. basically the case involved a former employee of the firm who at the time was driving a car owned by the firm when he got into a car accident, and he was now suing the person who hit him, and that person then tried to pull the firm in as what’s called a third party defendant, basically to say we’re also liable because it was our car, but to establish that they’d have to establish he was acting in the scope of employment at the time. so this dep was for the former employee and his baby mama/ex-girlfriend who was his passenger at the time, given by the lawyer repping the guy who hit them, and also sat in by another lawyer who’s representing the firm and this guy (but not the girl) so we were more or less there in like, an advisory position, but basically acted as the deponent’s lawyer at that point. so there was a whole bunch of unimportant stuff, but when they got to the former employee they did their best to really, really grill him on the car issue (like “does the firm provide all their employees cars for their personal use???” which is of course a no), but he stuck to his guns and maintained it was for personal use at the time and he was off-duty, which should effectively get us dismissed from the case, so we were happy about that. it went super long though, and by the time we got out it was like, 4:45, so at that point our lawyer was like well I have to go back to the office to get this notarized but there’s no point in you going back to just leave ten minutes later, so we walked to the red line on the courthouse stop and like, the train was so much emptier than it is when I got on at the office stop (two stops north) at like 5:15, like I was amazed, and throughout the trip there was just so fewer people I was like shit man, I need to start ducking out early and taking this train because it’s so much better like it was ridiculous lol. so I ended up making really good time and was off the train by like 5:30. So I walked the normal route home, except I needed milk for the recipe I was going to make since the milk that was in my fridge expired 6 days ago (I went through a whole like “well it smells okay does that make it okay??” because I wouldn’t try it because I think just milk is gross, but then I was like okay 6 days is too long let’s not fuck with this) so instead of turning off main street where I usually do I kept walking to where the 7-11 was, only to find it gone and completely boarded up, which I guess I hadn’t seen because I usually don’t go this far down on this side. but no worries, it was right across the street from the Walgreens so it was easily remedied, and I just got milk from there and then headed home. I was making a cheesy mexican bowtie pasta recipe and only being slightly experimental, so of course it starts with actually cooking the pasta, so I did that, and then you combine the pasta, like two cups of “mexican blend” cheese, a can of cream of mushroom soup (random, but okay), a cup of milk, and what was supposed to be a cup of mild salsa, but I can’t really do any type of salsa (when I’m trying to demonstrate to people just what I mean when I say I can’t do *any* spice at all I’ll say like “mild salsa and up” is off limits basically) so I instead used tomato sauce and added some taco seasoning, hoping that it would turn out semi-decent. so you mix that all together and throw it in the oven, then after like 20 minutes you take it out and sprinkle french fried onions and more cheese on the top and then cook it again for another like 5 minutes. and it came out pretty good! I was pleased with it, so that was a win for me. As it was finishing Jess came over and we prepped for our shows while also serving dinner. she has to get up early tomorrow for a photo shoot with “friends” so we decided we’d just do the flash and black lightning, instead of those plus the gifted. so we watched the flash live first. pretty good episode, they’ve been solid so far this season, so that’s good to see after a not all that great season 4. Nora is great and her relationship with Barry and Iris so far has been very well-written and well-acted of course so that’s very enjoyable. They managed to humanize Cicada very well tonight in very little actual footage, which was honestly impressive. obviously the whole Cisco thing was the focus of the episode and I was confident they wouldn’t actually be killing him in an episode calling “the death of vibe” because that’s REALLY on the nose and I don’t think they were that bad, but there was a few seconds there where I started doubting it a bit, but I was happy to see he was just fine. As far as the new version of Wells and their whole jumping to conclusions about the first guy thing goes, I felt like I had to draw a comparison to how this is a perfect example of what happens when police narrow in on a suspect too early and discount evidence that doesn’t point to them because they are convinced of their guilt and will make the evidence fit the suspect, which leads to a great number of wrongful convictions in the US and is a pretty large systemic problem. but that’s my real life diatribe about this lol. Black Lightning afterwards was also strong, I still love Anissa’s storyline of stealing money from the drug dealers and such and bringing it to clinics and churches (even when I have to suspend my disbelief a bit regarding how you can actually use stolen money) so that was good. I don’t know what I think about Jennifer’s storyline right now, the whole thing with the person- I guess she’s supposed to be a shrink?- showing up out of nowhere and mentally taking her to a salon was at best rather weird, and I’m not sure why her normally sensible parents would’ve thought that was a good idea. but I mean, if she eventually starts to help her, that’ll be good at least. The storyline with Jefferson and the new (white) principal was only in a few scenes but oooooooooof did it make me mad, just a whole lot of bs going on there. As far as Tobias goes, of course that arrest they made at the end of the episode was wayyyyyyyyy too easy and it’s never going to be that simple (especially this early in the season) so I’m really just waiting for the other shoe to drop there). but yeah, overall strong episode I really enjoyed. Jess left after that so I watched the 911 episode I missed from yesterday, and holy jesus I was tearing up like crazy, that show is a tad ridiculous at times when they come up with crazy situations they have to rescue people from (but I mean, that’s any cop/firefighter/EMT show ever made), but they also do emotion extremely well, from Buck’s sister (whose name I don’t remember) dealing with PTSD and fear of a vengeful ex-husband to captain talking about his daughter and ultimately in the end being invited into the photo with his girlfriend’s family (I seriously know like two characters names and that’s like, it) was honestly such a perfectly done moment I was legit tearing up over it. So yeah, kudos to them for playing the emotions very, very well. After that I started getting ready for bed, at one point there were a series of loud bangs that sounded somewhat reminiscent of the whole “bullets vs fireworks” game but like, there was a LOT of them and they were VERY loud, so I tend to think it probably wasn’t gunfire unless someone was shooting like 40 bullets in 30 seconds for some reason in our relatively peaceful and quiet neighborhood, at 11 pm on a Tuesday night for that matter. So slightly concerning but probably nothing, at least nobody here was in danger. And yeah, finished the rest of my routine and now I’m here and oh boy did I mention I’m tired and it’s almost 1 am now?? I had a lot to say about today 🤷🏻‍♀️ lol but I’m good now, so I’m going to pass out and sleep for the next 6 hours while I can (major sigh, but can’t do anything about it now). Goodnight my loves. Hope you had a lovely Tuesday.

#daily journal #October 2018 #Rachel's lawyer adventures #Rachel watches The Flash #Rachel watches Black Lightning

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itsiotrecords-blog · 7 years

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By revenue, Walmart is the largest company in the world. It’s also the second largest employer in the world (second only to the U.S. Federal Government) and the largest private company in the world, boasting a workforce of 1.4 million employees in the U.S. and 2.3 million employees total at 11,695 stores around the world. As big a company as Walmart is, it definitely had its share of criticism and lawsuits. It has faced criticism and lawsuits from various labor unions, religious organizations, environmental groups, and even their own employees. The company has come under fire for a variety of things—business practices, religious and racial discrimination, security policies, and more. In all of these cases, Walmart has denied doing anything wrong and claims they’re running on all cylinders when it comes to efficiency. Another statistic to add to the ones above is that Walmart’s annual turnover rate is more than 50%. A turnover rate that high must mean that people are getting fired left and right. In many cases, employees get terminated for some of the strangest reasons. Sometimes, employees are fired for not abiding by company policies and other times, employees are fired for no real reason at all. If you want to see what some of these cases were that got former Walmart employees discharged, then check out this list of 15 Walmart employees who share why they were fired.

#1 Practicing Self-Defense After Getting Punched By A Customer Obviously, this customer never heard of the saying, “Respect your elders.” The incident occurred at a Walmart in Florida in 2010. A customer was attempting to leave the store when the alarms went off. 69-year-old greeter, Ed Bauman, followed the customer out to check his receipt and see if the customer was guilty of stealing merchandise from the store, and he got sucker punched. Bauman was forced to use self-defense, but it didn’t matter to Walmart. They penalized Bauman by sending him home. When Bauman went in to work his next shift, he was told that he was fired. His termination notice referred to his actions involving the customer as “gross misconduct.” “They told me I did a good job of defending myself,” he said. “Then they turned around and fired me. I guess they just wanted me to stand there and get beaten.”

#2 Being A Cancer Patient Who Legally Uses Medical Marijuana The use of medical marijuana has always been a controversial topic. 29-year-old Joseph Casias was a store associate at a Walmart in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was a sinus cancer patient who had an incurable brain tumor that was pressing against his skull. In order to deal with the pain caused by his condition, Casias’ doctor prescribed him medical marijuana, which has been legal in the state of Michigan since 2008. But the Walmart in Battle Creek never got that memo. When Casias’ bosses heard that their employee was using medical marijuana, they promptly fired him. Casias had been with the company for five years and was named Walmart Associate of the Year in 2008. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) took on Casias’ case and sued Walmart for wrongful termination.

#3 Posting A Joke On Social Media Everyone knows that you’re not supposed to post negative stuff about your job on social media, even if you’re just making a joke. In 2007, David Noordewier, a worker at a Walmart in Michigan, posted on Myspace, “Drop a bomb on all the Walmarts, trailer parks, ghettos, monster truck shows, and retarded fake “pro wrestling” events, and the average I.Q. score would probably double.” Someone copied, printed, and brought Noordewier’s post to the management at Noordewier’s job and he was fired for it. Walmart didn’t see the humor in Noordewier’s joke at all. In fact, they took it as a threat. His offense was cited as “Gross Misconduct – Integrity Issue,” which is described as “Theft, Violent Act, Dishonesty, or Misappropriation of Company Assets.” They even denied Noordewier his unemployment benefits.

#4 Pursuing A Shoplifter Through The Parking Lot It’s been said that you should never chase after a shoplifter because two people running through a crowded area could be dangerous to shoppers and store employees. But some employees just want to do the right thing. In 2009, Josh Rutner, an “asset protection officer” working at a Walmart in Florida, attempted to chase down a shoplifter wielding a knife across the store parking lot. Unfortunately, Rutner was punished for his heroics. The retail chain has a “no-chase policy” to protect its customers and employees, a policy Rutner knew about but didn’t care about in the situation that ultimately got him fired. “I couldn’t let him get away,” he said. “That’s wrong.” The good news is that the shoplifter was caught the next day and the merchandise he made off with—a pack of golf balls—was retrieved.

#5 Receiving Complaints Without Being Informed Beforehand This one is from Reddit user budgiechild. Budgiechild was given no warning prior to his termination from his job. After he finished his shift for the day, he went into the office where they told him he was getting canned. There were two reasons for his sudden termination—performance issues and complaints from customers for unfriendly behavior. Apparently, budgiechild was in bad standing and he had no idea. Management never told him about the complaints they were getting from customers. Budgiechild admits that he’s not good with people or socializing, but he always came into work on time. He just wishes he could have done a better job. And as if getting fired wasn’t bad enough, his employers decided to fire him on his 18th birthday.

#6 Preventing A Thief From Stealing A Computer This one is just like entry number 12 above. Walmart really stands by their “no-chase” policy. The incident occurred at a Walmart in Wichita, Kansas in 2010. 30-year-old customer service manager, Heather Ravenstein, followed a man out of the store who was carrying a computer worth $600. She was suspicious that he was attempting to shoplift the item and demanded proof that he purchased it. The man must have been guilty because he kicked Ravenstein and punched her in the shoulder before dropping the computer and running off empty-handed. Ravenstein was fired later that day, due to company policy that prevents anyone who isn’t a manager or a member of the asset protection department from attempting to stop customers from stealing. A spokesperson for Walmart did say they were grateful for Ravenstein’s actions, though.

#7 Turning In Money Found In Parking Lot Too Slowly You think that turning lost money in would be good enough regardless. But apparently, Walmart has a time limit on things like this. In 2015, Michael Walsh was fired from a Walmart franchise in Schenectady, New York for turning in a large amount of cash he found in the store parking too slowly by Walmart’s standards. Walsh found the money in various stacks of bills, which totaled $350. After stuffing the money in his pants pocket, he entered the store to turn the money in when he heard a woman yelling at the manager about how she lost some money. Walsh, who has anxiety issues, froze where he was. He eventually returned to his job and gave the money to the manager 30 minutes after he found it. Two days later, Walsh was fired for “gross misconduct” after said manager reviewed the surveillance tape. He wasn’t given a chance to explain the situation.

#8 Sending An E-Mail Detailing The Pagan Origins Of Christmas When Walmart changed its greeting from “Merry Christmas!” to “Happy Holidays!” in 2005, it prompted complaints from customers and an email from a certain customer service rep. The employee, identified as “Kirby,” took it upon herself to explain the pagan beginnings of Christmas in reply to one of the complaints from a disgruntled Walmart customer. She said the following: “Christmas is actually a continuation of the Siberian shaman and Visigoth traditions,” Kirby replied. “Santa is also borrowed from the [Caucasus] mistletoe from the Celts, yule log from the Goths, the time from the Visigoth, and the tree from the worship of Baal.” Technically, all of that is true, but it probably wasn’t the right response. A boycott on Walmart was formed by Catholic League demagogue, Bill Donohue. Walmart had no choice but to fire their employee who started the whole controversy.

#9 Testifying In A Lawsuit So much for telling the truth. In 2007, Andi Bailey was working at a Walmart in Texas when she saw a substance on the floor. She called store maintenance about it, but before they could get back to her, someone slipped on the substance and fell to the floor, getting injured in the process. As a witness in a personal injury lawsuit, Bailey was told by Walmart to lie under oath. An attorney for the company instructed Bailey to say she didn’t contact maintenance before the accident occurred. But Bailey told the truth. After she testified in court, Bailey called out of work on two separate days so she could care for her sick daughter. Her manager gave permission, but when Bailey tried to return to work 10 days later, she was fired for calling out of work without permission. Bailey sued her former employer in a wrongful termination lawsuit for $1 million for lost wages and mental anguish.

#10 Stopping A Thief Wielding A Gun Much like their “no-chase” policy, Walmart has a policy against engaging armed civilians. The episode happened in 2011 at a Walmart in Utah when a shoplifter was caught attempting to make off with a netbook from the store beneath his clothes. A loss prevention coordinator apprehended the man and escorted him to the loss prevention room. Three more employees accompanied him. The shoplifter pulled out the netbook, but also pulled out a handgun on the four employees. One of the employees managed to seize the gun from the man and disarm him successfully without anyone getting shot. The man was held to the ground until police arrived on the scene. But Walmart didn’t reward the employees for their actions. They were fired under company policy that forbids any employees from trying to take on armed people.

#11 Purchasing Toys For Charity With Employee Discount Well, at least her heart was in the right place. During the 2002 holiday season at a Walmart in Stewartsville, New Jersey, 20-year-old Walmart employee, Tara Osmun, purchased toys that she donated to charity with her employee discount. The toys were valued at $1,000 and Osmun saved $108. She gave them to the Harmony Township Volunteer Fire Co. which was trying to raise money with a raffle. But when Walmart heard about what Osmun did, she was fired. Walmart’s policy states that employee discounts are only supposed to be used by employees and their families, not for anyone else. They even threatened to incriminate her on criminal theft charges if she didn’t pay the money back. But local residents offered to pay off Osmun’s debt.

#12 Recording Colleagues’ Phone Calls This case is pretty complicated, so here’s the short version. In 2007, Bruce O. Gabbard was a computer security specialist at a Walmart in Arkansas. Well, at least until he was fired by the store for spying on company officials. He was caught recording phone calls made between Walmart’s PR team and a reporter for the New York Times. The trouble didn’t stop there, however. Gabbard claimed that he was spying on officials under company orders, saying that it was part of a large-scale operation by the company to spy on its employees and stockholders. When he took his story to the New York Journal, Walmart sued him, claiming that Gabbard took a large stack of confidential Walmart documents with him when he left. Gabbard counter-sued, saying that Walmart was hounding him as they tried to drag him into an Arkansas court after he fled to Oklahoma.

#13 Accused Of Stealing Chicken Neck Bones Walmart really blew things out of proportion with this one. In 2007, Mary Hill Bonin, who worked at a Walmart in Alabama, was out shopping with her husband when they encountered difficulties operating a self-checkout so they could purchase some chicken neck bones valued at $2.90. An employee had to help them with it. But as the couple tried to leave the store, they were stopped by a security guard who accused them of stealing the chicken neck bones. A fiasco occurred between the Bonins, the security guard, and the assistant manager that ended with the Bonins being arrested by police and taken to jail. INS was contacted and Mary Hill Bonin’s husband, who wasn’t a U.S. citizen at the time, was deported. Mary Hill was refused bail and was not taken to magistrate court. As a result of the ordeal, Bonin lost her car, her house, and all of her belongings.

#14 Being An African Immigrant While Locals Are Unemployed They call America the “land of opportunity.” At least for some people. A group of 10 West African immigrants were fired suddenly from their jobs at Walmart stores in Colorado in 2009 for being…well…West African immigrants. They claimed they were let go because their supervisors wanted to give their jobs to local residents who needed jobs. Six of the immigrants said that a manager at the Walmart in Avon, Colorado called for a meeting consisting of the West African employees that worked there and said, “Wow, there are a lot of Africans, and I don’t like some of the faces I see here. There are people in Eagle County who need jobs.” The immigrants were repeatedly disciplined for not meeting production requirements until they were ultimately fired. Walmart said that the immigrants were a portion of a larger group of diverse backgrounds who were fired due to management changes.

#15 Greeting Customers With A Semi-Nude Photo Well, there goes something you don’t see every day. Imagine going into a Walmart and being welcomed by a greeter with a semi-nude photo of himself…or at least mostly himself. 65-year-old Dean L. Wooten, who worked at a Walmart in Iowa in 2005, when the incident occurred, had a friend who Photoshopped his head onto another guy’s body. Wooten appeared to be naked in the photo, with a strategically-placed Walmart bag covering up his private parts. Wooten thought the picture was hilarious so he brought it with him to work to display to customers entering the store. After customers complained, a supervisor told Wooten to stop, but Wooten didn’t listen. Five days later, he was back to his shenanigans. The supervisor fired him. Wooten said he didn’t think he did anything wrong.

Source: TheRichest

#IoTRecords

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