It wasn't getting fired from his job atCoca-Colathat upset Joseph Tichy.
He knew it was coming.
"I broke their point system," the Chicago resident said. "You get two write-ups. I was an hour late one day, and that was the final straw I guess. It's a violation of company policy."
In his dismissal letter, hand-delivered Jan. 27, Tichy's supervisor wrote that he had violated Coca-Cola's Attendance Control Program. Specifically, he was guilty of "repeated unauthorized absenteeism or tardiness."
His termination was effective immediately.
Tichy wasn't exactly broken up about the whole thing. He never planned to stay with Coke as long as he did — 3 1/2 years — and had been thinking about quitting well before he got canned.
As a merchandiser, his job was to organize the Coke products at several grocery stores, stock the shelves and build displays.
"It was supposed to be a summer job," he said. "It kind of turned into the longest summer job I've ever held. I'm not happy I got fired, but I was looking to leave."
Problem was, it wasn't a particularly clean break.
Tichy was supposed to receive a check for his unused vacation days, prorated to the first month of the year. It never came. Also missing was any correspondence explaining how he could apply for COBRA health insurance coverage.
"I called the HR team after two weeks," he said. "It was brought to my attention that I (was) still listed as an active employee in their system."
That led to another complication. As long as Tichy remained in Coca-Cola's system, he could not apply for unemployment benefits, he said.
Tichy said he called the human resources department repeatedly but could not get a straight answer.
"My union rep has told me it would be taken care of first thing tomorrow three times, and the labor relations rep never seems to be online when I contact the HR team," he said.
After trying for a month to get properly fired, Tichy emailedWhat's Your Problem?
"I have been getting by thanks to a couple of shifts at a bar, but I would like my situation resolved so I can put Coke behind me and move on," he said.
The Problem Solver called Coca-Cola spokeswoman Nikki Pierce and explained Tichy's situation.
Within hours, Coke had resolved all of the issues.
"Because we think of our associates past and present as family, we wanted to respond as quickly as possible," Pierce said. "We found out there was a glitch in our HR system which prevented him from getting his vacation (pay) as well as his COBRA information."
She said Tichy would receive his vacation pay within days and his COBRA packet within two weeks.
Pierce said Coca-Cola had submitted Tichy's information to the state for unemployment benefits on Feb. 17, so he should be able to collect those benefits immediately.
She called the situation "unfortunate."
"I'm happy we're able to get this all cleared up," she said.
So was Tichy, who said a Coca-Cola representative called him to explain the mix-up.
"They apologized," Tichy said. "They said there was an HR glitch. They didn't specify any further."
The vacation money was deposited into his bank account Monday. After taxes and deductions, it amounted to $83.45, Tichy said.
"I guess that's my final compensation," he said.
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