I used to Law and Civil rights category as is the closest words to my complaint.
My name is Mark Dinoia employee #2349228 from the Lowe's Franklin TN. Store 532, I was terminated January 24th of this and would like to state my side of what I can only explain as a bad joke from a fellow worker.
This co-worker, Sonya(last name I don't know off hand), filed a complaint about a comment I made. The following is the history between us. I never reported any of this because I thought it juvenile and management probably had more important things to take care of. I let it going thinking these actions and words would stop. They didn't, and it ended with my termination January 24th. Anyone on the MST team in store 532 can verify the following, also two members who have since left Lowe's, Jessica Mathis and Katelyn Holden, I am sure they can also be reached. I don't want or think this should be taken as retaliation but just as the facts of what I have been dealing with since the start of MST and an answer to why this all happened. I bare Sonya no ill will.
I was one of the original members of MST so is Sonya. I was informed that I had taken a ladder from the aisle Sonya and another member of the team were working in not knowing they were using it. Because of that, Sonya and the other member of the team decided to tell all the new hires to the team that I was Bossy and an Ass. I am not a very confrontational person and let it go. The new hires, including the gentleman James Ladd, who was my most recent supervisor, all soon found out after working with me that her comment was not true and I am a very easy person to get along with. My old supervisor, Brian Fitzpatrick, who has since gone to another store close by, got a hold of this and thought the rumor was true. Jessica Mathis will recall an instance where this came up, she is also going to write and tell her side and interactions with Sonya concerning me.
There was a period of time where Sonya for no reason would repeatedly slam her tool cart in to mine several times to get by me, without ever once asking me if I could move it, me standing within reach of it. When I asked why she didn't simply ask me if I would move it, she replied that slamming into my cart with hers until she could get by much easier thing to do than ask me to move it. Again, I was hoping all this would stop. It did after a while but something else would take its place.
It is my thought that Sonya was not offended by the comment I made and she filed the complaint about. I understand another person also filed a complaint I believe encouraged by Sonya to write it. I don't think I am just grabbing at straws here. I do believe it was a sick joke intended to in some way get back at me or "teach me a lesson" over some little thing I did. I'm sure those who know her on the MST team and other associates of the store would not put it past her to do something like this. I am sure she will deny ever thinking that. I was told that when Sonya found out about my termination was shocked to find out that I had been let go and my guess she didn't intend, think or hope in any way that I would or should lose my job over this. I think she may admit she carried this a little too far, unless saying so would jeopardize her job.
I was at the store for 2 and a half years with a perfectly clean file until joining the MST team and working with Sonya. I loved the store, the associates and most of all my customers and they loved me, even getting the occasional hand shake from a satisfied customer or an associate. On my first night at Lowe's, then on the overnight stocking crew an African American gentleman immediately took me under his wing and to this day I think of him as a father figure to me. James, that's his name, works in the storage dept. was shocked to hear that I was let go for the comment I made. I told him along with his wife the comment I made and they both shook their heads in disbelief that this was the reason for my termination. James can also be contacted.
In closing, I just find it very hard to believe that the comment I made that did not offend to African American people male and female, James being in his 70s his wife in her 60s, and that 2-younger people, who are WHITE, were offended by it. I hope this will be looked into and investigated just as thorough as that investigation that ended up with my release from work at Lowe's.
Thank you,
A Dedicated Employee,
Mark Dinoia
201 Gillespie Dr.
Apt. 13405
Franklin, TN. 37067
