GOT BOUNCED! can i get my job back?!? LONG STORY

joyriide1113

joyriide1113

There is no cure!
well other than going to school, working in parents law firm when im not in school, detailing the times in between, sleep, a girlfriend, i also do bouncing work here in miami on saturday nights. at first this was a thurs, fri, sat night gig but with school i had to stop.

well last saturday night i was working at crobar of s.beach. a very nice club, with an honerable reputation thruout the s.florida area.

well while working the entrance for the first 3 hours 11pm-2am, im moved to the vip area when this drunk, drugged, beliggerant d**k starts having an argument with a bartender.

bartender acts ridiculous and immediately screams "BOUNCER, get this fool outta hear." the guy then looks at me and walks over and says "are u gonna take me outta here".

allow me to pause for a second and mention that i by no means am a person of confrontation, despite the job. many other bouncers as u guys may know are quick to fight, take a swing, or just throw someone out. i know everyone likes to party, have fun on the weekends, and drink. so instead of immediately kicking someone out i always ask them to leave and come back next week. if he doesnt liek that then i call for back up.

well feeling good about meeting an unnamed celebrity that night, i ask the guy to walk with me down the vip stairs and talk. i ask him whats the problem and then tell him that he can stay but hes gonna have to leave the vip and hang in the main room if he wants to stay in the club. he gives me a drunken look and pushes me and tells me he'll be where he wants. i grab his arm, take him to the floor, and use the radio to call some of the downstairs bouncers. upon their arrival i mention to them that this guy is really drunk, pushed me, and that he needs to be removed.

well these "animals" i call my co-workers are huge roidraged freaks that always look for a fight. upon picking the guy off the floor and walking him to the door, he gives resistance, and one of my big goon co-workers takes him down and starts bashing on him. i immediately yell "what happened" and he says that the guy tried hitting him.

this guy looked to be 5'9' 180lbs. me, who im 5'11' 220lbs lean, i had no trouble restraining this guy, so by no emans did my fellow bouncer need to bash on this guy, who himself looks to be 250lbs roided!

at the end the guy was removed and later that night i was informed that he caused some problems outside and was placed under arrest for public intoxication. when walking back inside from removing that jerk i tell some of the other guys to relax and not beat on people like that. yada yada yada we talk and the night ends.

i get a call today from my boss and he tells me that the guy has placed a law suit with the club saying that the bouncers physically abused him without need. witnesses (the drunken fools friends) said the same thing. now me and the other two guys are fired, yet i was the passive one. i didnt inflict injury, i didnt use volatile force. i simply restrained him, and the escorted him out.

all in all im pissed because this was a good job where i would make 160 a night and probably 250 with front door and vip tips. thats over 400 dollars some ngihts and because of some goons who have childhood trauma of being picked on, i dont have that anymore..

just to rant somemore, bouncers are physically ALLOWED TO REMOVE SOMEONE. but one mistake a lot of bouncers have is that they can bash, and fith everyone. who wants to go to a club where they're gonna get beat up. no one. sorry guys for typing soo much, its just im out 400 extra bucks. IM SOO PISSED!
 
At the club I work at (Metropolis in Tampa) we get rowdies all the time. Some guys just don't know how to have a good time without getting violent. Anyway, our bouncers are pretty ripped guys and just having them around usually keeps it calm, but as party goers do, things sometimes get out of hand. I'm sure the club has a good lawyer since lawsuits are very common in this industry. I've worked at clubs that get sued a couple times a month, but it takes more than filing paperwork to win a lawsuit. Usually the testimony of a drunk party animal doesn't stand up against two or three sober bouncers. I've never seen a club I work at lose a case where someone was bounced and then they cried about it.


I would look into a wrongful termination suit. You say you work in a law firm? I don't know what the specialty is, but I'm sure they at least know a good lawyer that handles stuff like that. You can't just be fired because someone sued. You can be fired if they lose perhaps, but unless it is proven that you did something wrong then all they can do is suspend you until everything is cleared up. Wrongful termination isn't something the club wants to fight on top of whatever lawsuit the other guy filed. Like I said, it takes more than just filing a lawsuit to win a case. You already know that, so I'd call an attorney and tell them your story. I think you have a case.
 
thanks leyland. actually i just received the news a couple hours ago. i havent had a chance to speak with my mother regarding this. thanks for that info. that'll be the first thing i mention tomorrow morning.
 
Leyland said:
I would look into a wrongful termination suit. You say you work in a law firm? I don't know what the specialty is, but I'm sure they at least know a good lawyer that handles stuff like that. You can't just be fired because someone sued. You can be fired if they lose perhaps, but unless it is proven that you did something wrong then all they can do is suspend you until everything is cleared up. Wrongful termination isn't something the club wants to fight on top of whatever lawsuit the other guy filed. Like I said, it takes more than just filing a lawsuit to win a case. You already know that, so I'd call an attorney and tell them your story. I think you have a case.
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I agree. Get some paperwork typed up naming the club in a wrongful termination. Let them also know that nothing more than a suspension until you are cleared (with lost wages repaid) would be acceptable.

I wasn't there, so I really can't say what happened, but I have been in more than one fight where a scrawny person has taken on several people much larger and still made quite a mess.
 
Joy, sorry to hear what happened, check with your parents regarding the wrongfull termination.

I'm sure that this isn't the first time your club had a suit filed against them (everybody looks for a reason to sue) what happened to the bouncers in those incidences?
Also ask for clarification, if you are terminated or merely suspended till the out come, which might have recomended by the clubs lawyer.

Keep us updated and good luck
"J"
 
This is why I stay home and drink these days......I do hang at a local bar for drinks on Friday afternoons for the end of the week.....I'm out the door by 5 PM and never more than two the laws in this state are way to stiff for DUI's


Good luck on getting your job back, it sounds to me that the owner might not know what your father and mother do for a living :whistling
 
spoke with my parents this morning and from their advise i do have a wrongful termination case against them. they said the first thing i should do let the manager of the club aware that i wasnt involved. then let him know that i will file a wrongful termination claim against him. if he doesnt budge from his stance my parents say i can take him to court and sue for the next 6 months pay. which will he choose i dont know but i surely hope i get that job back. i have witnesses and other bounces who are willing to vouch for me and testify that i never inflicted injury on the guy in the club. thanks for the advise. ill let u guys know how it goes when i give him a call tonight.
 
Sometimes its easier to put all the flames out then wait for the smoke to clear and see what the damages are. I'm guessing that maybe the case with you and the hiring mgr...I would bet that once the owner finds out about this you will have your job back....also once they find out what you father and mother do for a living that should change things for you.

Good Luck!
 
By all means you have a wrongful termination lawsuit, plus several other points that a good attorney will advise you on. At my nightclub we have a bank of VHS cameras and recorders that cover the entire area. If the club you worked at has the same (and odds are they do) you MUST legally request a copy of that tape immediatly. Your evidence is on that tape. The longer you wait the harder it will be to get the copy that you are legally entitled to.

Good Luck.
 
I'm surprised CROBAR is not loaded with security cameras but be that as it may Florida is an "at will" state which means any employer can terminate any employee without cause or reason....your employment status is "at will."

There really is no such thing as "wrongful" termination it is a term made popular by unions when arbitrating for their union members against the employer. In the world of employment law wrongful termination may be used in correlation with discriminatory termination and such.

Now-a-days in order to go after an employer that has term'd you, you are going to have to prove sometype of discrimination on the part of the employer --even more so in at "at will" state.

THis concludes the legal part of my advice :detective

If I were you I would make arrangements to speak to your manager's boss alone and tell him or her the situation. Tell him/her how it really went down and how you maintained professionalism at all times. Let them know that if you didn't care about your job and didn't like that you wouldn't be there, after all there are plenty of jobs you can do in miami.

Now here is where your acting ability comes into play. you gotta make them believe somehow, either through words, body language, etc that if there is a lawsuit coming down it would be a far better idea to have you on their side than in a position where you may be willing to cooperate 100% with the plaintiffs. How you're going to do that I don't know you so I don't know work on your speech and incorporate the right verbage to get that idea across.

Hope it helps. CROBAR is a nice place, i was there during the winter music conference and I've been to Chicago's CROBAR 2 this year already.



Armand
 
That's why I don't party at South Beach anymore way to many thugs (that includes the drug dealing bouncers) that hang out their. It may be a bit hard to prove a bouncer didn't "harm" an individual (not saying you did), just that in that line of work it's some what expected to forcefully remove someone which usually requires force.
 
armand said:
I'm surprised CROBAR is not loaded with security cameras but be that as it may Florida is an "at will" state which means any employer can terminate any employee without cause or reason....your employment status is "at will."
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This is true... same here in CA. Perhaps I read the original post wrong. It sounded like termination was not performance related, but rather tied to legal issues brought by the party involved with the altercation. Even with at-will employment there are still guidelines that must be met.

I had almost an exact situation with one of my security staff. Legally I can't go into detail here, but I can say its common knowledge that he was terminated as a result of physical abuse complaints. He filed a claim that was allowed to go to court, where our VHS evidence proved our position. The burden of proof was on us. Without that evidence who knows what would've happened.
 
I just saw this thread and was going to say the same thing that was mentioned. 'At will' states are hard to fight wrongful termination. There are still laws about firing people, but it does come down to the fact that your state doesn't care if you have a job or not. Utah is the same way. I've been a trainer for several years and when we have to let someone go we really don't need a paper trail before we do it. Some states require you to have all kinds of documentation on how you tried to correct performance and all that jazz, but not here. We don't need a reason to fire you. The only time people ever come back with a lawsuit is when they cry discrimination. Unfortunately for them 'Stupid' is not a protected class of citizen. If you can't do the job, then you don't get to work here. Pretty simple.

However, that being said, I can't go out in the parking lot and fire someone because they parked in my spot. That would be grounds for a lawsuit. Likewise, you can't fire someone just because someone is suing the company for something you weren't involved in. That would definitely be wrongful termination. Even in a right to work state you still have employment laws to follow. What happened to you is an HR nightmare.
 
well i spoke with the hiring manager today and i decided not to bring the topic of a lawsuit up but rather explain to him what happened and how i didnt have any involvment. unfortunately this goes beyond him. the owner of the club was the one who directed him to fire me and to stay teminated until further investigation. unfortunately investigation never goes further than asking people what happened, so i guess i lost the job. im sure i will get other bouncing jobs, but the idea of going back into a situation like that directs me away. the extra money to throw away really was great tho.

i dunt know... maybe ill get hired back. maybe ill just take someones offer and go work at "mansion" (another club), which isnt as big or well known as crobar but will probably pay the same... it just sucks that the money i would make, the good co-workers, waitresses, and bartenders i was friends with, wont be there anymore... all because some huge wanna-be WWE wrestler with a complex decides to beat on innocent people who obviously arent acting themselves due to intoxication, drugs, ect..

THIS SUCKS!
 
Too bad you aren't in Tampa. We love our Bouncers at my club. They are practically the main attraction. lol We're always looking for a few good men.
 
Ocupational hazard. Get used to it. Your job is to restrain people's fun if they get mad they get even and file a suit. The boss doesn't need the hassle he said she said he fires you and gets new people. Look for another job. In college I drove a cab. Company policy if you have an accident at an intersection your fault or not you were fired. I'm sitting at a red light second car back, the light turns green I proceed through the intersection and BAM I get broadsided by a drunk running a red light. I get fired i find a new job. Life is not fair, get used to it.
 
C'mon man... this guy just lost his job for no reason. How can you say that is just the way things go? That is a crappy attitude to have. By that reasoning you wouldn't report me if I broke into your garage and stole all the tools and truck that you need to coduct business. Life isn't fair. Get used to it. Stuff happens. Or do you think you would be a little bent and do what you could do to bring back what was taken from you? The man lost his job for no reason and all you can say is "that's the way the cookie crumbles?" What's that about?
 
theamcguy said:
Ocupational hazard. Get used to it. Your job is to restrain people's fun if they get mad they get even and file a suit. The boss doesn't need the hassle he said she said he fires you and gets new people. Look for another job. In college I drove a cab. Company policy if you have an accident at an intersection your fault or not you were fired. I'm sitting at a red light second car back, the light turns green I proceed through the intersection and BAM I get broadsided by a drunk running a red light. I get fired i find a new job. Life is not fair, get used to it.
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What happened to you in your childhood that made you so bitter? Do you need a hug?
 
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