my employer is relocating and I can't go. Any advice

[DMB0618]

Pennsylvania
I live in the Philadelphia, Pa area. I have a question regarding my situation. I have been with my employer almost 2 years and I was told by my direct boss that our office is combining with another office in the area to a central location. The area they are mentioning is at least double the driving distance and I am not able to travel that far. I am sure a voluntary layoff is not an option as they are hoping I will be joining them although they have not yet offically announced the location yet. Our lease is up in Nov 2009 so I know our move will happen around then. Where can I find information regarding my rights (if any) re unemployment while I can find another job comparable to this, its a great job but the drive is not worth it, I have searched the PA unemployment website but keep coming up with nothing. I am not sure if there is a specific keyword that i could try searching thanks in advance for any help. Denise

 

[ecmst12]

It depends on how much farther it is, and will be reviewed on a case by case basis by the unemployment office. Given the job market right now, you might want to think twice before refusing a perfectly good job just because of the drive. When I was job searching, it took me a year and a half to find one. You might want to take the job and look for something closer WITHOUT taking a 35% pay cut (or a 100% pay cut, if your unemployment is denied). How many extra miles/minutes are we talking?

 

[commentator]

commentator

The keyword you will need to search is "reasonable commuting distance." However, this will only get you some very generalized information. And you will not be able to get any definitive, case specific information until the situation actually happens, in other words, you quit your job because they are closing this office and you do not want to commute to the new facility, and you file a claim for benefits.

Right now, you do not even know the exact date of the change or location of the new facility. Thus you cannot be very specific in questions about whether you will qualify for unemployment. No decision or even "approximate guess" can be made until you have actually filed the claim. I appreciate your desire to pre-plan, but it is far too general a question.

At that time, they will ask you how far you are commuting now, how much further the new job would be (if time due to traffic congestion or route is the issue, you may want to be able to provide the information in "it now takes me fifteen minutes to drive to work, at the new job, I would be driving ninty minutes both ways through the city" ) Thus it is helpful if you have driven the route you would take to the new job at the time of day you would be driving it to report to work. This will all be filtered through the state's idea of a reasonable commuting distance. In some states this is stated and set in concrete. In most, it is general term, depending on the circumstances.

If the increase in commuting time or miles is significant, you may be able to receive unemployment if you voluntarily quit due to the company moving. I'm like exmst, though, I'd think long and hard about quitting a job in today's economy because of commuting distance unless I was very sure I had another job lined up. Even if you get approved for unemployment, it's going to be a very significant pay cut, with a finite end to the benefits, regardless of whether you've found anything else or not. And the job market is poor right now most places.

Why don't you begin to search diligently for another job closer home before the place actually moves, without leaving your current job? It will certainly hurt your chances for unemployment benefits if you quit several months before the place moves simply because they are moving in the future. They're not going to buy that you need the free time to look for another job. In other words, don't throw away something you have for something you don't have but think you can get. Verify that "can get" first.

 

[xylene]

Residential Consideration

You could break your lease early.

If you are proactive you might not face a substantial ding at all.

The few hundred dollar cost of an early move might be worth it.

 

[cbg]

In my state they also factor in things like availability of public transportation and traffic patterns. The population density is much greater in the eastern part of the state than the western, and there is much more public transporation available in the east than the west. Thus what is considered a reasonable commute will vary depending on what part of the state you live in.

You're just not going to be able to get definite information beforehand.