Worker Fired For Pushing Back After Her Employer Forced Her To Use Her Personal Cell Phone For Work On And Off The Clock
She learned a valuable lesson in taking back her power.
Depiction Images / Shutterstock A woman named Erin McDerin took to TikTok to stand up for herself and workers across the US after her boundaries were repeatedly crossed by the company she worked for.
The recovery worker was fired for pushing back after being forced to use her personal cell phone for work, both on and off the clock.
“I’m here to talk about boundaries and setting boundaries for yourself," she began her video. "Because I wasn’t trying to lose my job, but I also was not going to let my employer take advantage of me."
“I put my foot down and I set up boundaries and even though I wasn’t trying to lose my job, I feel super proud of myself that I didn’t let these people push me around,” she shared.
McDerin is a licensed recovery worker. For the past five years, she’s worked with people in recovery from addiction and people who are still in active addiction.
“This job in particular was direct work with people, helping them find the things they needed to find in recovery, like housing, food, [and] jobs,” she explained. On her first day, the person training her mentioned that she would have to use her personal cell phone to get in touch with clients and coworkers.
She didn't want to do so, due to a past experience in a job where she gave her personal number to clients — an act that had negative consequences on her life outside of work.
“What’s unfortunate is that people who are actively using have no boundaries, and they will call you, text you, as many times as they want, at whatever hours, on whatever days. They don’t really care if you tell them you’re not working,” she shared. “So, you could imagine my shock on the first day of the job when I was told that this company, that does social services, requires people to use their personal cell phone.”
Photo: Alena Shekhovtcova / Pexels
McDerin detailed the various reasons why she didn’t want to use her own phone for work, in part because she felt like it crossed her boundaries, and also because she shared a phone plan with her kids and their data slows down if there’s too much use.
She made her concerns clear to her supervisor, who requested that McDerin get the use of a company phone. However, that request was denied because she was only working part-time hours.
“So, at that point, I didn’t really have a choice,” she said.
In an attempt to maintain boundaries, she found a setting on her phone that blocked her number from view when calling people, so that clients wouldn’t have her personal contact information.
“The company was very dissatisfied with that,” she revealed. “They thought it would result in clients not picking up the phone if it said ‘Blocked Call.’ I didn’t disagree with that, but I felt like I was put in this situation and that I should have been informed in my interview that I had to use my personal cell phone.”
McDerin felt forced into giving her phone number to clients and immediately felt the boundaries between her personal and professional life collapse.
Not only were her clients contacting her at all hours, but there was also a coworker group text in which they’d communicate about clients, and she’d receive up to two dozen texts on any given day. McDerin decided to block the text thread on her days off, then unblock it when she was back at work, but her employers didn’t like that she did that.
Photo: fizkes / Shutterstock
“I also expressed some other concerns I had that I felt were HIPAA violations, confidentiality violations, and Department of Labor violations,” she said.
Upon voicing her concerns, McDerin was called into a meeting in which she was asked to resign. She replied that she couldn’t resign, as she had rent to pay and kids to feed, so the executive director told her she was fired.
McDerin made a follow-up post detailing her concerns that the company violated client confidentiality. Despite being fired, she wasn’t removed from the group chat, which meant she received client information after no longer being on staff.
In her video, she spoke directly to people criticizing her “for making too much noise,” saying, “We need protections for employees because employers are increasingly taking advantage of their employees and making them feel like they need to keep their mouths shut, that they don’t have a right to talk because they will lose their job.”
“We need a better America for our kids,” she exclaimed. “If I have to look like a jerk on social media to help make a better America for my kids, who are Gen Z, then, I’m gonna do it.”
McDerin’s experience was a wake-up call, one that highlighted just how imbalanced the workplace has become. She’s completely right: The next generations deserve a better version of the society we’ve built, and we all have to raise our voices to make sure that happens.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers social issues, pop culture analysis and all things to do with the entertainment industry.