Talk about a BAD way to treat your people!

I'd be speaking with a lawyer. The FMLA act prevents such treatment. She could OWN Zales.

There is no compassion in the world today. People are being laid off and terminated and just because of pressure from the economy. I'm not sure if that's why Zales did this but it's definitely not a way to bring customers back to that store, nor any store. Treating an employee bad is like burning money. Especially a top sales employee!

Oh my God, This is soooo bad! I hope a lot of people will not be buying in that store...I will spread this news to my friends!

man,that's some gratitude for you.. typical.once they consider an employee a liability due to health,out they go. these are usually the same companies that use "team" propaganda too. if i owned a store and saw this,i'd hire her.anybody that can make one million in sales is somebody i'd want.

Wow, this sounds really serious. I'll have to try and set aside some time to check it out. I almost never buy jewelry and if I do it isn't the stuff to be found at Zales anyway but if someone was unfairly mistreated that just isn't right.

Oh my goodness...No employee deserves to be treated that way! ={ Even more , she is like sick, for goodness sake, have mercy on her...She had been the star employee so why don't they just understand and appreciate her for her excellent service...Sometimes i just think that a lot of companies don't treat their employees with care...=\

Pretty sh*tty way to do a lady that made the company millions. I will spread this article around. We no longer have a Zales in our mall, and I am glad-glad-glad. I hope Mrs. Camerelli (sp?) gets her surgery, recovers, then starts banking millions for the competition. The sonza...well, you get the idea. My apologies for the faux profanity, the anger that welled up in me as I read that article...well, there are no words for that.

This is happening more and more these days. Sometimes companies can not afford to carry the insurance on people at all. Others can't pay the high premiums for certain employees with expensive diseases. This has been all over the news. A person may be just like this lady and end up this way. It is very important to keep up with what employers are doing financially and how the insurance is doing. We all need to make sure to read the fine print of insurance. And in situations where the bills get really expensive or like this woman, a patient advocate is a good person to have working with you. Also each state has an insurance commission which looks into cases just like this. It is not the employee's fault and in many cases not the employers fault because of how the insurance companies are covering their butts. Good story that should make us all take notice.

Well, after the way that we were treated at Zales before Christmas last year, I will never shop there again! After reading this, I am thinking I was right in my decision. I hope this lady has kept everything in writing and files a lawsuit for false firing. They aren't supposed to do that, although it did happen to me while I was waiting for a diagnosis. They did tell me I could come back, but they had to replace my position because I was the front office receptionist and they had to have someone in the position.

That is horrible! It almost sounds as if the people responsible for letting her go did not realize what a great employee she was....maybe didn't know her history. I just can't imagine someone deliberately being so insensitive to such a loyal and regarded employee. She should not have been fired or let go. If they are that cold and she is that good then they deserve to lose her. Another company would value her so much more and she deserves the appreciation.

Elic, There are Co's that will do things like that. Zales should be boycotted until they give Rose back her job, if she wants it. There are so many employees that are climbing the corporate ladder after the almighty dollar and are so short sighted. They know the position will bring them the money, but they know nothing about the the rights of an employee unless it applies directly to them. That new regional manager was trying to score brownie points. I bet he never even looked at her records. He just saw the request for time off and saw how maybe he could save Zales money on the insurance. He had no idea how many laws he was in violation of, including the disability law. I wonder if he was fired? DCMerkle

By the way, I wrote them an email from their site. If everyone did, maybe they would wake up. I am sharing this with everyone that I know and you can bet it will get around.

This might be a false rumor. It sounds like Zales doesn't have a Union. Unions are spreading false rumors like this to try to convince people that businesses without unions are evil. They have become the corrupt institutions they were designed to protect us from.

this sounds alful. she needs to get an attorney.

Pretty sickening isn't it? You would think that those middle level managers who were all over this poor woman when everything was going right would stand up and be counted - let the area manager know what they felt about this - I know I would have no respect and would not be able to keep quiet on the subject! xxx

She needs to file suit! Since she HAD to have the surgery, I would think that the time limit on filing suit would be extended. It seems like the big chain stores, who push the "we're all one big family" crap to their employees are the first ones to chop off their "family members" heads. I went through it with the place I worked. They handed me the "we're family" crap, and worked my a$$ off! I would put in over 160 hours every couple of weeks...I went from entry level to top pay scale in 9 months (it was supposed to take five years...so you can see the amount of overtime I put in). The manager bragged to my parents about how wonderful of an employee I was and that I was one of the hardest working people he knew. Then I tore up my right hand and arm and also tore up the C4-C6 vertebrae in my neck. Within a month I was terminated. It was either fire me or promote me to management trainee. That particular chain didn't want women in management, so it was fire me. I PROMPTLY filed suit and cost the twits nearly $500,000 in expenses for treatment and all factors involved with the suit. It would have cost them so much less if they had said, "yes we did it" and paid everything off. I didn't get the big bucks, just the satisfaction from knowing how much I cost them over the space of 12 years of suing them. Now, if I hear the line "we're all one big family" from a potential employer, I run like hell the other way. This lady definitely needs to extract her pound of flesh from Zales. And we ALL need to email them and tell them what we think of what they did.

It sounds like very bad employee relations but also very bad public relations as the cost of treating this lady with sympathy would be quite small and would provide excellent publicity for the company. However what you have to allow for is that stupidity gets in everywhere. Even the cleverest people can be very stupid at times

I've always despised Zales because they may just be the MOST expensive jewelry store chain out there. My husband and I went to many different jewelry stores before buying our wedding rings. We looked at similar rings in each store. Zales was, by far, the most expensive... their prices were at least double that of other stores, in some cases even triple-priced! This story of that poor woman and how they treated her when she REALLY needed help and understanding from her employer, Zales, is truly despicable! It happens a lot in large corporations... employees, no matter how good they are, are simply numbers, not human beings. I would never shop at Zales before simply because of their greed but I'll make a point to let anyone know how they treated this poor woman if I hear of anyone going jewelry shopping! Thanks for the great post!

I cannot believe this cr@p!!! I hope that she will sue them for wrongful termination (or however it is worded). I do not buy jewelry from Zales, but if I did, you can bet it would be my last time!

While it was horrible what they did to her, all retail vendors act in similar ways, sadly. Workers have no real rights unfortunately these jobs in NY are considered "at will" and they can terminate you without a reason. Perosnally I feel unions have ruined most of the world by their overzealous demands (they caused many newspapers to close) and have seen their day, but in retail I hink they could be useful, but companies are very good at keeping unions out.