LOL. This is like beating a dead horse.

Is there even a company left to sue?

Mike Edwards didn't get a full 60 days' notice. Maybe he should sue too?

Ok the argument could be made that "official" notification in the form of a letter from Borders Corp was not sent to each HQ employee. We all know that HR feel down on the job many times in the past eight months.

Unofficially in numerous meetings more than 60 days prior to layoffs we were told that without a buyer Borders would more than likely cease operations and we would be out of work in AA. That should have been a huge hint to Jared and everyone else. The bigger hint or wake up call came in February. Since roughly March nearly everyone that I had contact with in AA was at some stage of job hunting, from resume writing to interviewing. AA employees were leaving at a rate of 5+ a week since early March. Sure nobody was given an official letter but you would have had to been blind not to see what was going on.

Jared, like everyone else, in AA knew full well what was happening. Roz basically said in many meetings if you need to leave then go. Management at all levels openly encouraged people to start looking and supported them with recommendations.

There were / are severance packages(though merger) being given out in AA. This did not happen in the field.

As for "pension contributions" 401k match stopped 3 years ago and Borders did not have a true pension plan.

If Jared and others can get something out of this then great but it likely will never happen. I would remind Jared that he had every opportunity to look elsewhere as we all did. He also had time to get as ready as you can for a possible layoff. I would also remind him that AA employees were not to only ones affected by this and previous rounds of layoffs. Those folks had less of a warning than we did.

Also, Michigan is an "at will state" meaning that your employer can let you go anytime without a reason and you can leave at anytime. I am not sure how that plays into this case. Lawsuits like this have been filed against Borders before.

One last comment for Jared. Just remember that those in AA at the end were treated better than those in the field. Sure you are pissed off and rightly so but you are only one of over 19,000 in July 2011 and only one of 35,500 in February 2011. There were many more before that. So sorry if it is not all hugs and kisses for you.

Totally agree with this.
I sat in every all hands meeting in 142 since going into BK and felt the company did everything to let us know that there was a real possibility of not making it.

This Jared chump is just trying to get free money, dude get over it, move on and get another job, although with what you just did with the lawsuit, don't know many employers will touch you now!

Will you ever stop being an idiot?

Look Jared up on Linkedin. What a great hire. 7 companies (well, 6 but he had 2 stints at Compuware that were separated by working elsewhere) in 9 years before hiring on with Borders. Yes he did a stint at Circuit City but only for 1 year. Then went to Sears where he was a District Manager in Training for 1 year. Then hired by Borders to be a DM. He had never been 1 before except for that 1 year as a DM in Training at Sears right before Borders hired him. Just another reason Borders got flushed. What an amazing job they did of hiring executive and upper level management leaders over the past 5 years.

"...requires certain companies to give 60 days' notice before conducting mass layoffs..."

I would point out that the company had been closing stores and laying off employees for YEARS. Didn't he ever notice?

So sick of chain bookstores (mainly you assholes, B&N and BAM) with your stupid reward program cards, bullshit useless coupons and neverending emails. So fucking glad Amazon crushed you like the cockroach you were. In conclusion: FUUUCCCKKK YYYOOOUUU Borders!!!!

What does your childish post have to do with anything here?

Like one of the Yahoo comments to this news story said, this guy is a moron for spending time and money to sue a company that will be gone probably by the end of this month. When he gets nothing and still has to pay his lawyer's bill, he will bitch and moan like the little victim he claims to be. He's probably out spending the money he thinks he will get right now! Borders has been "winding down" for months, only a complete idiot would not realize his job was in danger. People never seem to amaze me.

If the company had survived he probably had a case, but since it's all but gone he can get in line behind the publishers and landlords to get paid. It's a "Hail Mary" at best.It's easy to sue someone in civil court if you're a lawyer or find one who'll take the case. Winning is another matter entirely. You can't get water from a stone.

Jared didn't actually work in Ann Arbor. He was in DM in Southern California before becoming a DM on the East Coast; however, all DMs were considered corporate employees.

Very true. As a "corporate" employees they had access to the same info as those who spent 100% of the time in AA. If he chose not to pay attention until he was laid off like the rest, who fault is that? As has been stated everyone was given ample warning of what could and (as time went on)likely would happen. Sure Mike E was almost begging people to stay but the truth overrode those pleas of "all is well". Even lawsuits can't take the place of common sense.

So, Jared was a DM? How exactly can he claim he had no knowledge of the impending mass layoffs? At a minimum he was better informed than any bookseller as to the situation in Ann Arbor. Plus, let's assume that he had overseen some mass layoffs as stores in his district closed. Plus, let's also assume that he was savvy enough to know what has happened in other retailers when they went belly-up.

Jared, bud, you are either the stupidest son-of-a-bitch in the USA or you want to make sure that your headline-making lawsuit is seen by potential employers who just put your resume into the circular file. You must have come over from Circuit City.

You're awfully cynical. You know absolutely NOTHING about this guy, yet you're assuming he's filing suit to make headlines, and assuming he came from CC? And for the record, he never publicly claimed to not know what was going on in terms of layoffs, that's just your spin on the story. He's obviously doing this because he believes companies should be held accountable for breaking the law (as Borders has done over and over). He's trying to stick it to the man, and I applaud his courage.

As a former employee we were over communicated to as to the state of the company. Nice approach to the job market, I assume potential employers will enjoy your new claim to fame.

I dont think any 'spin' will make people feel better about this. People have (or will in a few short days) lose the work place they love without severence.


But I do want to tell you it will be better once you move on with a new job. You will find new co-workers to enjoy and a work place without the daily pressure of wondering if your store will be on the next "list" to close.

It is fair to say everyone employed by Borders either knew or should have known the company was in horrible financial shape. It's possible - in fact very probable - that some of the totally out of it part-timers working few hours on an irregular schedule could have failed to appreciate the immediacy of the company's likely demise. The information was out there. If this guy was a DM it is virtually impossible for him to be unaware of the company's situation.

This is about an employer failing to provide "notice" in a manner and format set forth in the law. It's not good enough to say that "we didn't send out or publish a notice because the fact that we might go out of business was all over the newspapers and other media." That's not notice as required by law.

Where this person's suit may fall short is that federal Bankruptcy Code gives Judges considerable power. Judges have the power to void a debtor's duties imposed by all or parts of other laws, rules, regulations, and/or private agreements. We see it all the time when local laws about "Going out of business sales" are modified or overruled by Bankruptcy judges.

It is difficult to imagine this action producing a positive result for the plaintiff in particular, or any other employees in general.

Why didn't he sue Ron Marshall or any of them .. they are the ones that did nothing and took the money and ran ...

You can file a 'class action' suit against a company, but you can't sue the CEO of that company unless that CEO personally committed a crime against you or was personally responsible for not paying you, running over your cat, etc...c'mon, it's Law 101 you dingbat!!

What a lovely pissing match, I don't have a fucking job, I don't blame anyone but myself for staying in such an unstable and hostile environment, God Bless America

Fuck, i'm already going to get my welfare check. Might as well get what i've been paying into for the past decade.....