Never Count Your Money When You're Sitting at the Table

I've been putting off this post for awhile, because it has been a busy, stressful time, and it has been difficult to organize my thoughts. So this may come out as a rambling pile of goo, but here goes nothing.

Back in August of 2007, my dad received a job offer from a casino in eastern Iowa for position of casino manager. My parents had lived in Las Vegas for 23 years, at which time my dad broke into the gaming business. In those 23 years, he had worked for only two employers, and had spent the last 11 years with the same casino.

It was this loyalty that led him to discuss the offer he had received with his current employer, let's call them Farrah's, who owns a casino in western Iowa, and were thrilled to find he would be willing to move to Iowa, as so few people in the Las Vegas gaming industry are willing to give up what they consider the "major leagues" for the "farm team." He was told they desperately needed help in their Council Bluffs location, and if he were willing, they would transfer him, pay all of his relocation costs, and give him the equivalent of a promotion. They balked slightly at the salary issue, choking on the higher standard salary the Vegas employees receive over the Iowa employees, not to mention the salary difference 11 years of seniority bring, but in the end, they came to an agreement, and my dad accepted the offer.

It was a difficult decision. My mom was giving up a job she had worked at for nearly 15 years. My 80 year-old grandfather still resided in Las Vegas, and was not interested in exposing himself to the harsh mid-west winters. In Las Vegas, their only child (me) and three grandchildren were only a few hours away, as opposed to 1,500 miles. Too, there was the matter of the suffering Nevada real estate market, and the very real possibility they would not be able to sell their house in Las Vegas in a timely manner (this concern was alleviated slightly by the provision in the relocation package that after a "reasonable" amount of time, their Las Vegas house could be purchased by the corporation). In the end, the career advancement, the slower pace, and especially the lower cost of living were appealing to them as they headed into their last 5 to 7 working years before retirement.

My parents were typical middle class wage earners for most of their lives. They managed to pay their bills, and establish good credit, but at the end of the day, they didn't have much left over. Sure, they owned a home and two moderately priced cars, and I don't remember ever doing without something I really needed, but it was also clear that "money doesn't grow on trees." Suffice it to say, my parents had day-to-day living covered, but were able to save very little towards retirement for most of their adult lives.

To make matters worse, they had promised their only child (me), they would make sure she could go to the college of her choice, provided that she worked hard, was accepted, and earned some scholarship money for herself. They would make up the difference. Being young, and completely ignorant of financial issues, and probably more than a little selfish, that only child chose one of the most expensive universities in the country. But true to their word, they made up the difference between the cost of the education, and the scholarships and student loans granted to her, and she was able to fulfill her dream. In the mean time, they had to take a second mortgage on their house to accomplish this. So it has only been in the past 10 to 15 years they have been able to really buckle down and save money for retirement, and as many of you know, that can be a little late. A cost of living decrease could only help them, right?

So they make the move across country to western Iowa...several weeks earlier than they had planned, as the Council Bluffs casino's need was so desperate and immediate. My dad's first task was training several people in casino management, so that they have a more rounded work force than they did before, and they weren't so dependent on him. This task was not an easy one, given the hostility of the other employees. I'm just guessing at the reason for the hostility, but I'm sure it has to do with feeling slighted that promotions were not done from within the casino, and instead some "hot shot" from the "big city" was brought in...and brought in at a higher rate of pay to boot.

Salaries are supposed to be confidential, of course, but during a meeting my dad had with his boss, a fellow manager sat in, and salary issues were discussed. How long do you think it took that other manager to be ticked off at the differential, and how much longer before he shared this information with the rest of the workforce...folks he had known for years and forged friendships with?

But my dad pressed on, and for five months imparted his 23 years of Las Vegas gaming experience to the Farrah's casino in Council Bluffs, which, by the way, was more experience, than the highest ranked employee in Council Bluffs. He changed his shift, his days off, and his duties several times to accommodate the needs and/or whims of upper management, so that the casino was getting what it needed out of him. He has always been a team player.

Then, they fired him. Without warning, without preamble, without much of anything at all...they fired him. The party line was that an employee made a mistake...a mistake, and he was the supervisor on duty, so he was being held responsible. No money was lost due to this mistake. No one stole anything. No one helped a player cheat. No one sexually harassed anyone. It was a matter of simple, human error.

According to their own employee handbook, a Farrah's employee should be given a first written warning, then a final written warning, and upon the third violation of policy, be terminated. This did not happen. Of course Iowa is a right to work state, so legally a company can fire you at any time for any reason, and they don't even have to follow their own handbook. Legality aside, the question is can they do it morally?

How can Farrah's justify practically begging this long-time, loyal employee, who had nary a whisper of misconduct or even simple, human error in his employee file after 11 years, to move half-way across the country to train their employees to do his job, then fire him, just, coincidentally, when the buy-out option on the Las Vegas house was coming up? The Council Bluffs casino did appear to be under some financial pressure from corporate, the economy being what it is. It doesn't seem like too much of a stretch to think they'd want to save themselves an expensive venture like that. I imagine that firing one of their highest paid employees, and triggering a tiny little clause in the relocation contract that makes 100% of the relocation costs already paid become repayable to the corporation, couldn't hurt the bottom line either, now that he has generously done his job by showing everyone else how to do his job.

They have moved a 57 year-old man away from the only industry he has worked in for 23 years, set him up with a big fat target on his head by sharing his salary with those who were paid less, taken advantage of his teamwork mentality, then fired him, knowing full well he has zero chance of getting a job at his current level in his current industry, in Council Bluffs; knowing he is too old to change careers, and too young to retire; knowing they will be adding insult to injury by tacking on a huge debt he has no prayer of repaying, in addition to two houses he cannot sell; knowing he will completely lose the little bit he has spent 57 years saving so that one day he may be able to retire.

My dad didn't deserve this. No one deserves this. It is beyond comprehension how people can be so cruel and heartless.

Tell me how this can be morally justifiable? How?

Of course many would say how could you expect a corporation that makes its millions by exploiting the vices of others to be moral in the first place? Good question, and one for which I have no answer.

The only thing I can say is that my whole life I have been told that the people in the middle of the country, the heartland, were the best people in the world. The big cities, especially those on the east coast, and west coast, they are full of corruption, but the country...that is where people really care about each other. That is where people are true neighbors...salt-of-the earth. Funny, that. In Las Vegas, Sin City, the place that is widely regarded as the most morally bankrupt city in the United States, my father never experienced such disregard for the human condition as he has in the Mid-West, where people, and even corporations, are supposed to be good and honest and upright.

My dad worked in the gaming industry, but he wasn't a gambler, and he certainly never expected to lose everything he worked so hard for to a casino.