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Filing for unemployment...

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panik

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Indiana

I work in an at-will state. I used to work with my husband at a call center for a local cell phone company. I found out a few weeks ago that my husband was having an affair with another woman I worked with. I had to see both of them at work. This obviously put me in a very awkward position as well as the company, and they were aware of what was going on. I took steps to ease the situation by getting on anti-depressants and was going to file for FMLA thru my doctor to take some time off work before I lost my temper while there. One night i stopped by my house to pick up a few things and while there messaged my husband thru our cell phones thru the company asking him if he had slept with her on my bed so i knew whether or not to take that with me. Anyway, he and i had been going back and forth like this for awhile at that time. That night, he responded once, i responded again, he responded again, then i got a message from his girlfriend. At this point i lost my temper, grabbed my cell, called her, and left a message on her voice mail saying if i saw her outside of work her a$$ was mine. She had not threatened me in her message sent to me, however it was a threat that she even had the nerve to message me in the first place. I was fired from my employer for using company property to threaten another employee. That was on a Friday and the next Tuesday i believe, i went in and filed for unemployment. I have since gotten a letter from them stating there was something brought up by the employer and i needed to fill out the same paper again and get it back to them asap. My question is, does this mean they are contesting it? The employee handbook says behavior like this is grounds for termination. However, it ALSO says that although the company recognizes personal relationships may develop in the workplace, if it begins to affect the workplace it would be grounds for disciplinary action up to and including termination. The only way the workplace dealt with it was to tell all three of us we cld have no contact. They had told me they would move my seating so i would be close to a supervisor in case of harassment and away from where i could simply look down an aisle and see either of them. I was crying all the time at work which was obviously affecting the workplace but feel i was wrongfully terminated since i was being harassed by both of them outside of the workplace(numerous times) and simply seeing them at work was enough to cause me to melt down. I dont feel as if the situation was dealt with in a fair manner. Am i even eligible for unemployment? Also, how much of this story do i really need to include in my unemployment paperwork? Talk about a sticky situation..sorry so long!

Thanks for any and all advice..
panik
 


Beth3

Senior Member
No, you were not wrongfully (unlawfully) terminated. Your employer was well within their rights to terminate your employee for threatening another employee. The type of "harassment" you describe is not prohbited nor is it your employer's responsibility to sort out an employee's personal situation or referee a personal conflict between employees.

No one here can tell you whether your employer is contesting your UC claim but it's likely they will as they have grounds to do so. Whether your actions will be determined to be "willful misconduct" by the State and benefits will be denied is something only a UC adjudicator can decide.

By the way, even if they find you eligible for UC benefits, that still won't mean you were wrongfully terminated.
 

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