Unemployment appeal

What is the name of your state? New York

Next week is my appeal hearing and I would like to make sure that I am as prepared as possible. Unfortunately, I have not been about to find answers to the specifics of this case and I would like to try my best to display those issues here in hopes of a reply.

Basically I felt very rushed by the claims examiner I spoke with about my claim and any events that I tried to speak about were cut off abruptly. The only thing that was significant was the exact reason that I put in my two weeks and only the occurrence that happened that day to make me leave. This is understandable, but there were months of events that lead to my decision. Though to me these seem very significant I would like to know what legal bearing they have since the claims examiner would not let me finish a sentence when I tried to speak about them.

During the last few months that I worked for this company I was promoted and moved to the business sales division. Now, this company had retail and a corporate side that worked under the same roof and in the same space. The General Manager of the entire store had a personal problem with our department and rendered my direct manager unless to make his own management decisions. He also verbally abused us and made our daily work routines completely ineffective. This issue was brought up to the local HR in our store and eventually was brought to a corporate level. Multiple meetings were made to no resolve. This is also far from the first time that this manager had HR issues for abuse in this store. Now, the fact that we were on a commission base didn’t help with these sorts of issues happening since it affected our paychecks directly. With an “open door” policy, myself and another on my team tried our best to fix the issues to return to the working environment we were used to. In contacting the general manager directly I was chastised and embarrassed in front of my peers. With the matters still in the air there were relocation efforts in the works for myself to be positioned at another store. In the middle of all of this there was a restructure at corporate headquarters and the human resource person that was helping us directly was lost. Also, our local HR’s position was resolved and was really the only one we could trust in the store to talk about issues with without a parade from management talking among themselves about it.

Besides any issues with our General Manager is was also discovered that my direct manager and other employees was smoking weed all day on the job and that answered my questions about the dysfunction in my department. With being unsuccessful with HR in the past we were hesitant to start any more trouble and tried to work through it. I was depressed, hurt, and angry and put in my two weeks. At this point I really wish I didn’t but I wasn’t thinking very clearly about it, I knew I was unhealthy working in those conditions. After I left someone decided to turn them in to HR and it was discovered that the general manager told everyone in the store about it. This again showed to me how ridiculous they all were and again reminded me why I felt there was no one to turn to there. One of the workers was very hostile and I feared for my well being. There is a book I could write but I don’t know what is significant and what it not.

To me, the events prior to my putting in my two weeks had everything to do with why I left but the Dept. of Labor felt different and denied me benefits. I had to move back home with the loss of money and had to quit college. I didn’t quit just for the sake of doing it because there was a lot at stake. It states that if you voluntarily quit that you have to prove “good cause” and I attempted to do so but I am unsure what to do. I am just as confused writing this as you may be reading it but I hope someone can help shed some light. If anything needs to be clarified I will be happy to do so. Thank you all for your time.

I also would like to add that I am going back to work for this company, just at a different store and location.

If I am understanding you correctly, you quit your job because you were unhappy with the way certain matters were being handled. You applied for unemployment and were denied.

Do I have it correctly? Your post was unbelievably confusing.

Sorry to be so confusing, it is very hard for me to get all this information out. Was I unhappy with the job, of course. My manager was high everyday and work that needed to be completed was not being done. I became seriously depressed and my blood pressure was through the roof. When I read about "good reason" for quitting I remember seeing "changed in working environments" which was deffinetly one of them. What is it exactly that I have to prove....these are just soemthings that were happening and I felt threatened with no where to turn but to leave.

It wasnt just the fact that I was unhappy that they werent being delt with. With them not being delt with was leaving serious work enviromment problems.

While it varies slightly by states, generally "good cause to quit" for purposes of unemployment benefits does NOT mean, it was an uncomfortable place to work. It does NOT mean, there were problems in the workplace. It does NOT mean, my boss was unpleasant or my co-workers were smoking illegal substances.

It means, you were being subjected to sexual harassment. Or ILLEGAL discrimination. Or being forced to do something illegal in order to keep your job.

While I'm still having a very hard time understanding you, on the basis of what I can understand I think your chances of winning the appeal are slim.

My boss was getting high at work.

That meant I had to work more to get the job done.

That made me sad.

I quit.

I filed for unemployment.

I was denied.

I'm still sad.

I want to appeal.

Simple.

"You have "good cause" to quit a job if the average person, in the same situation, would have quit his or her job (Taylor v. UCBR, 378 A.2d 829 (1977)). But before quitting, you must make a "good faith effort" to avoid quitting your job (PECO Energy v. UCBR, 682 A.2d 58 (1996))."

I feel I did try and resolve it and while the harrasment wasn't the problem, it was a problem that it persisted and I could not do my job. It was a problem that my manager smoking pot hindered me from doing my job. I made every effort to correct the situations and was to no avail.

The problems in this store were personal and damaging. What other good cause could there be?

I also read this:

#
Unacceptable Working Conditions
Unacceptable working conditions can be "good cause" to quit a job, if you try to fix the situation with your employer (Kirk v. UCBR, 442 A.2d 1234 (1982)). However, since you presumably accept your working conditions when you take a job, simply being unsatisfied with your working conditions is not considered good cause to quit (Stratford v. UCBR, 466 A.2d 1119 (1983)). For working conditions to be "good cause" for quitting, you must show that:

1.
Your employer has substantially changed the working conditions; or
2.
You were unaware of the conditions when you took the job; or
3.
You were deceived about the conditions of employment. (Nat'l Aluminum v. UCBR, 429 A.2d 1259 (1981)).

Some examples of working conditions that could constitute "good cause" for quitting, as long as you informed your employer of the problem, include:
Unsafe working conditions (Howell v. UCBR, 501 A.2d 718 (1985)).
Your employer's refusal to pay you (LaTruffe v. UCBR, 453 A.2d 47 (1982)).
Offensive conduct by your employer, supervisor, or coworkers, such as unfair accusations, abusive conduct, discrimination on the basis of race, sex, age, etc., or profanity at work (Moskovitz v. UCBR, 635 A.2d 723 (1993)).

Aside from the fact that the two cases you first quoted are from the Pennsylvania courts and have no relevance to the New York system, you forgot
Quitting for a personal preference is not good cause. To be considered good cause, you must have quit out of "necessity" (Glen Mills School v. UCBR, 665 A.2d 561 (1995)).

The other cases aren't worth mentioning since they have absolutely no connection to your situation.

This post is ridiculous.

So what do you need us for? You've already done the research and found case law.

There is a major flaw in your theory; however - do you see it?

Only someone in the NY UC board can say for certain whether you will qualify or not. I am telling you that in my opinion, based SOLELY on your extremely confusing post, you have a very slim chance of prevailing. It is certainly a fact that the large majority of people who quit their jobs do not receive UC benefits.

Ultimately I am wondering why everyone thinks this is ridiculous. I had no other choice but to leave. Hope could I stay when our GM threatened us daily? How is it a personal reason to leave when they caused the issues, not me? I put in ever effort I had to resolve the issues but to no avail. It was affecting work conditions directly.

In this country you have the right to work.
In this country you have the right to work without sexual harrassment.
In this country you have the right to be paid a fair wage for your work.
In this country you have the right to the protection of the law regardless of sex, age, religion or origin.

In this country you DO NOT have the right to a nice boss.
In this country you DO NOT have the right to a free ride.
In this country you DO NOT have the right to a workplace free of conflict.

In other words, you DO have the right to find a new job.

So, I suggest you find one with a nice boss who does his/her share of the work and is always pleasant to you with a smile on his face. Because that's the ONLY way you're going to survive in business.

BelizeBreeze I totally agree. I could care less about a nice boss, most of them aren't. I am pretty sure you General Manager can't say things like "If you don't like what I am doing then call F&*$ing HR." I am going back to work for the same company and not looking for a free ride. I loved working there and I am going back. I just can't for the life of me understand how when issues or a serious nature are brought to the appropriate channels and it is shrugged off how a normal person wouldn't leave. Why are people paid unemployment when fired or laid off? Because it waqs out of their control? Well so was my reasons for leaving.

This company did not show up for 2 hearings with two other individuals and I understand my world is different because i quite and they were fired. Those are the people to me getting a free ride, they lied and twisted the facts.

And telling you "I'm going to F***ING tell HR" is NOT against the law.

Hell, I told a woman who worked for me to "Get your ass back home and put on a bra or don't come back" and still won at the UC hearing.

Get over yourself. If you get so upset at the work F*** then you're in for a real hard life. Just wait until you have teenagers telling you to go F*** yourself

I went through this...

I went through this process with an ex-employer and I won!! All I did was tell the truth and I didn't do any studying or anything. What will happen is you will most likely sit in a small roon with you, the employer, and the judge - all close together at a table. The judge will hear one side, and then the other. If you feel you were in the right, chances are their decision will be in your favor. The more paperwork you bring in with you, the more defensive you look and the weaker your case looks. Just trust in the fact that you were wrongfully terminated and state the facts as they occurred. You should not need to prepare, with the exception of bulleted facts you don't want to forget to state during the hearing.

Good luck!

P.S. In my case, the individual my ex-employer sent to court was not a person present in my exit interview and was not my IMMEDIATE supervisor - The judge threw out every single piece of "evidence" she brought in and disregarded almost her entire testimony based on the fact that I was the only one in the hearing who was ACTUALLY in my exit interview. This may not happen in your case, but I truly believe I won because I was honest and did not EXAGGERATE my case.

Using language like F***ing HR is sexual harassment. Language like that is not acceptable in the work place. Persue the sexual harassment issue.

Using language like F***ing HR is sexual harassment. Language like that is not acceptable in the work place. Persue the sexual harassment issue

That isn't sexual harrassment. In bad taste, but not sexual harrassment.