u/bailulz

Indiana native, moved to northern Colorado last year. Anyone know of any good bars/restaurants that will be showing the Indy 500 and have generally good vibes?

Location: Colorado

Looking for some advice - this is long-winded, but I put a Tl;DR at the bottom lol.

I started a new position in a new state (Colorado) in June of 2025. When I started, I was in-office 2 days per week, about a 45 minute commute each way. I was told on my first day that they were looking for a newer/better office space in Denver, likely going to be moving there around the end of the year. According to GPS, Denver was just a little further than my commute at the time, so I didn’t think much of it. I was also still VERY new to the state, and still getting used to how long it actually takes to get different places. In around October (maybe November), they had signed a lease on a new office building, and were also pushing to do 3 days in-office instead of just 2. They circulated info and employees had to sign off on these new policies at this time. My direct supervisor at the time told me to let him know when I started the new commute if it was a problem, and said he would fight for me however he needed to in order for me to stay regardless. This supervisor, unfortunately, left in December.

I had arranged to work from Thanksgiving to just after Christmas back in my home state (discussed week one of my employment and was approved then). Most employees started in the new office in December, but I didn’t until the beginning of January. Within the first couple of weeks of the new commute, there was already a tangible difference. I had two options: I could make the commute in an hour and pay ~$25/day in tolls, or I could opt out of the tolls and make the commute in an hour and a half. I often opted for the tolls, and ended up paying about $200 JUST in tolls in the month of February. This doesn’t even include the extra wear on my car, or the fact that gas prices are steadily increasing.

Around the end of January, my supervisor (the Controller) was replaced. I spoke to him very early on in his time about how the commute was taking a lot out of me, time-wise and financially, and asked about any flexibility. He was new and didn’t really have any pull, so said it wasn’t really up to him, but was fine if I wanted to talk to the CFO (his supervisor, who I had worked directly under/with the entire time we were without a Controller) about it directly. I told him I’d think about it for a bit, because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to just go straight to her, or have him talk to her for me. A week or two later, I mentioned in a one-on-one with him that I planned on talking to the CFO about it the next week. The next Monday, he said he had mentioned me wanting to have a conversation to the CFO, to which the CFO replied, “She doesn’t need to speak to me about it, she can just talk to you (the Controller).” I immediately felt discouraged, because he had already said it wasn’t up to him. He did say that he didn’t care so much about me getting there right at 9 AM and leaving right at 5 PM.

A week or two later, the Controller said in our meeting that “leadership is really watching and cracking down on in-office attendance, so you need to make sure you’re here Tuesday-Thursday for 8 full hours.” This was against what he had said previously, but I still understood that it wasn’t really his rule, so whatever. We often commiserated about the policy being silly and extreme, and hoped it would eventually ease up.

Fast forward to April. I was taken into a meeting with the Controller and head of HR, where they gave me a “Final Written Warning” about my in-office attendance. I pushed back and had a few questions regarding the policy, and when I asked what the stipulation for who had to commute was, HR said it was “anyone within reasonable driving distance.” So just vague enough that they could (and did) apply it differently to different people.

The warning itself was documented in our payroll system. There were some things that were just stated straight-up incorrectly, and the rest I had documentation and reason for. Essentially, I had done some extra working from home due to health issues and also a major car repair. I responded to the warning with all documentation (doctor’s visit notes, car repair bill, etc). It took a few days, but my supervisor eventually said via Slack “I saw your response and we will get the information updated in the system.” I waited for that to happen before I signed. It never did.

I had also requested some FTO (flexible time off) for May, to go home for a wedding and some other things planned ahead of time. My supervisor was aware of all of this. I made sure to ask about the timing, as the CFO was going to be out around the same time too and I wanted to make sure at least the Controller would be there, and said I was happy to work remotely some as well if it was helpful. He said he’d take a look and let me know. During the warning meeting, I was told I didn’t have enough FTO (it’s unlimited, but within your first year they limit it to 3 weeks - everyone else I talked to in the company said this was never enforced) and that my request would be denied.

The warning happened on Wednesday 4/15. I was in-office as required Thursday 4/16, and Tuesday 4/21 to Thursday 4/23. I sent a message to my supervisor on Wednesday 4/22 saying that my flights were non-refundable, and said I was happy to work remotely if needed or take the time as unpaid, whichever worked better. He said he would escalate and let me know, because he wasn’t sure about the policy for unpaid time off. I never heard anything else about it.

I was fired over Zoom on Monday 4/27. They said I “obviously didn’t want to adhere to company policy” so they were letting me go effective immediately. The record was never updated, I was never given a response on my vacation time - they just got rid of me.

I’m wondering if I have any recourse here - should I try for unemployment? Is this a fair reason to fire someone? I’ve never been fired before, and it wasn’t because of my job performance, so I’m at a loss here.

TL;DR - started a job in June 2025, major policy changes happened at the end of the year. Tried to discuss flexibility, was met with hard “No”s and brush-offs, was given a warning (with incorrect information that was never amended) after working from home due to health and car-related reasons, then fired not even two weeks later. Do I have any recourse, or should I just cut ties and move on? I have no interest in being rehired, just really want to make sure I'm not getting fucked over with the severance they're offering and/or my ability to claim unemployment.