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vbros1gfriend

Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Ohio

I have recently entered an appeal of re-determination concerning a "voluntary quit" with my previous employer. This is still within the Unemployment Department and not entered into the local court system. I am planning on representing myself due to lack of money to hire an attorney.

Prior to my resignation of my employment of three years as Office Manager of this company - I complained to the owner of company that I was uncomfortable hiding and not entering or depositing cash sales that he required me to evade in the excess of $200,000.00 over a two year period as well as money that he transferred for "administrative salary" purposes (purchasing a new home; paying all of his personal bills from account; etc.) This conversation (confrontation) was after Workman's Comp. had ordered an audit of his records. I told him that I would not be a part of lying to this or any department concerning classifications of employees in order to save money on his semi-annual reports.

This confrontation caused a situation of retaliation, which ultimately caused my "constructive discharge" under my understanding of the law. My benefits were cut; a new employee was hired that forcefully took over a lot of my duties and responsibilities; my lunch hour was cut; and was subjected to a very hostile environment that included verbal abuse and my supervisor throwing things and cursing at me in front of other employees.

I requested a meeting to discuss all above issues and attempted to work through these problems. I was assured that the new employee was not there to replace my position and received an apology of his bizarre outbursts towards me. At this meeting, I again let him know that illegal evasion of taxes by not entering the funds into our business account had not changed. The new employee took over processing payments for this reason. My job title was still Office Manager and I disagreed with this illegal evasion due to ethical reasons as well as our net profit reports were not accurate. He based his decisions of reducing our medical and life benefits on these parameters and I felt it unfair and did not want to get in trouble for being a part of it in case of a larger audit by IRS.

After this meeting, our professional relationship became even more strained. The new employee admitted to another employee that she was hired for the purpose of taking over my position as Office Manager once she returned from maternity leave (she was 7 months pregnant when hired). She admitted this to me once she observed the hostile environment that I was being subjected to after getting to know me and finding out herself that the negative way that I was being treated was unjust. She was told not to "piss me off" before she came back from maternity leave in October.

I could take not more and resigned at the end of September. I didn't feel that training someone to take over my position was fair. I have many witnesses that I am going to call in on my behalf at my appeal hearing that witnessed my conversation regarding being uncomfortable evading funds from taxes and the resulting hostile activities.

Do you have any suggestions of where and how I go about preparing for my appeal case and do I have the right to my unemployment file of all information my former employer has sent in to properly prepare for my defense? Sorry for the lengthy post. There actually is a lot more to this case - but feel that retaliation/constructive discharge will be my best angle to fight.
 
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cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I have one suggestion, though it's probably not what you're looking for.

Under the law, "Hostile work environment" has a specific meaning and your situation does not meet it. Under the law, you were not in an HWE unless you were being subjected to either sexual harassment or illegal discrimination under Title VII (race, religion, national origin etc.).

I mention this because I'd hate to see you hurt your case by accidently claiming things you can't support because of a semantical misunderstanding.
 
S

seniorjudge

Guest
“God invented paragraphs and sentences to make written communication easier by breaking up major ideas into smaller chunks. Try using them sometime. One long unbroken string of words is hard to read.”

--DebtGuy

Standard answer on long and/or rambling posts:

Cut it in half

Use paragraphs

Leave out editorial comments

Ask three questions


You will be more likely to get someone to help you if you do this.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
Sorry but I don't think you have a case. Not to minimze what you've been through but the short version is that your boss asked you to engage some unethical/illegal accounting practices. You objected and he hired someone else to do them. While your boss may well have acted like a complete jerk, what you describe does not meet the legal definition of a hostile work environment.

Since the State has ruled against you already, then it's fair to assume having your benefits and lunch hour reduced does not provide "good cause" to quit and still receive UC benefits.

You certainly have nothing to lose by pursuing your rights to appeal but I doubt you're going to be successful.
 

vbros1gfriend

Junior Member
Thank you for your "constructive criticism" regarding paragraphs. I have edited my original post in hopes it will be easier to read.

Re: Sorry but I don't think you have a case. Not to minimze what you've been through but the short version is that your boss asked you to engage some unethical/illegal accounting practices. You objected and he hired someone else to do them. While your boss may well have acted like a complete jerk, what you describe does not meet the legal definition of a hostile work environment.
***But because of my refusal to perform such illegal accounting practices - my work conditions became very stressed and my duties of Office Manager was being taken over by the new employee.

This employee admits that she was hired to train for my position so that she was to take over once she returned from maternity leave. Could this be viewed as Constructive Discharge due to my boss retaliating against me for not wanting to participate in his illegal business practices?

Hostile working environment as recognized by the law would definately be hard to prove. Although - I do feel on many occasions that I was discriminated due to gender in an industry of 90% male influence. In fact, one of our service technicians was given the title of "General Manager" and a raise even though his duties as a service technician never changed - and I was still performing all duties of "General Manager" of my company without the title or the salary.

My former employer was very rarely in the office and I worked solo building his company from sales of $250,000 in 2002 to $1,500,000.00 in 2004. I performed all supervisory; HR; dispatch; job coordination; equipment purchasing; inventory control; accounting; marketing; and advertising. He was very pleased with my performance until our confrontation concerning unethical business practices.

I did not file my unemployment claim as a discrimination claim. I filed as a "ethical objection" claim. However, on my "disallowed" notice from Unemployment - they said that I did not prove discrimination from my employer. Does this make sense to you?

I appreciate your input and advice - I sincerely feel that my boss forced me to quit my job by all of the bizarre treatment that occured after my confrontation on my ethical objections. I have since found employment after five months. But, I depleted my savings and was forced to sell items in order to keep up with my bills during the employment search process.
 

Beth3

Senior Member
But because of my refusal to perform such illegal accounting practices - my work conditions became very stressed and my duties of Office Manager was being taken over by the new employee. I'm sure they were stessed but again, that has nothing to do with the legal defition of a hostile work environment.

This employee admits that she was hired to train for my position so that she was to take over once she returned from maternity leave. Could this be viewed as Constructive Discharge due to my boss retaliating against me for not wanting to participate in his illegal business practices? Maybe but constructive discharge, in and of itself, is not actionable. If I make someone's working conditions so unpleasant that they'll quit because they're left-handed and I don't like left-handed people, that does NOT constitute a hostile work environment. It just constitutes me being a jerk.

I did not file my unemployment claim as a discrimination claim. I filed as a "ethical objection" claim. However, on my "disallowed" notice from Unemployment - they said that I did not prove discrimination from my employer. Does this make sense to you? Yes, because you don't have a discrimination claim. Nothing in your post remotely suggests your boss acted in the manner he did because of your gender nor is that the reason you quit. Additionally, ethical objections does not constitute "good cause" in UC reg's. Had he forced you to engage in the questionable/illegal accounting practices (i.e. "do this or your fired"), then you might be able to claim "good cause" but he did not do that. He hired someone else to do the things you refused to do.

You're confusing having a good reason to quit with "good cause" to quit - and that is very narrowly defined in UC reg's. There are very few circumstances in which a State will grant unemployment benefits to someone who voluntarily quits their job.
 

vbros1gfriend

Junior Member
You're confusing having a good reason to quit with "good cause" to quit - and that is very narrowly defined in UC reg's. There are very few circumstances in which a State will grant unemployment benefits to someone who voluntarily quits their job.

**What is meant by just cause?
Ohio law defines "just cause" for a quit or discharge as whether the action taken was what an ordinary person would do under similar circumstances.


After some research - I found an attorney forum which states this:

Quote - RETALIATION HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT - Any form of bad conduct toward you is suspicious if the employer has a motive to retaliate. If you engaged in any form of protected activity such as I describe in my Retaliation article, and if the employer wants to retaliate against you, he might create a hostile environment that does not contain crude sexual or racial comments, etc, but instead is simply generic rudeness or disrespect or unfairness of any sort whatever.

Does anyone know if Ohio recognizes other forms of hostile working environment other than discrimination as described above?? I feel that my environment changed due to retaliation concerning our confrontation of his illegal business practices.

I appreciate any suggestions or comments.
 

Whatnow2do

Junior Member
Hey vbros1gfriend,
I don't have any great advice since I am also going through much of what you are going through. If you haven't read my posting "forced to quit_unemployment denied", read it. It's right there next to your posting. My very hostile boss drove me out too and I was amazed my unemployment was denied. My position was being phased out and that is how he eliminated my job. I thought about appealing the UC determination and at least telling the UC board my story, but I realise my chances of winning would be slim. More importantly than winning, I need to "let go" of my bad job experience and move on. Of course my bills aren't getting paid right now, but I'm determined to find something else. I know how frustrating it is to lose a job that you weren't planning to lose. Nothing about my quitting felt "voluntary"(UC summed up term for my job separation). Good luck to you.
 

Whatnow2do

Junior Member
Hey Whatnow2do!

Thank you for the review of my post. After reading some of your situation - we do have alot of similarities.......Wish I would have researched before my resignation. I would have forced the "a##hole" to fire me!!


Me too! I regret that I didn't see what he was doing and hold firm. But then again, I truly thought that no one in there right mind would expect me to have to work under such conditions, including the UC board. My boss was getting rid of my position and needed an easy "out". There should be something with UC law that can look into a "voluntary quit" situation and see if that job was eliminated and what conditions were being forced on an employee. To me, it's almost criminal to treat a good employee bad, just to save money. Unfortunately, it seems far too many employers use that tactic to avoid a formal layoff and the rightful collection of benefits. I didn't just walk out for no good reason. I was there for 5 years and did my job well. I now wake up every morning, heart pounding with worry over my bills. I made it all too easy for my boss and the thanks I'll probably get will be a bad recommendation (he was livid when he read what I told the UC office, according to my supervisor).
 

Beth3

Senior Member
There should be something with UC law that can look into a "voluntary quit" situation and see if that job was eliminated and what conditions were being forced on an employee. There IS. It's just that neither of your situations meet that standard.

Does anyone know if Ohio recognizes other forms of hostile working environment other than discrimination as described above?? I feel that my environment changed due to retaliation concerning our confrontation of his illegal business practices. There is no such thing as a hostile working environment except one that is due to prohibited discrimination. Your boss becoming unpleasant because you refused to follow his orders simply is not a HWE no matter how many times you ask.
 
S

seniorjudge

Guest
Beth3 said:
There should be something with UC law that can look into a "voluntary quit" situation and see if that job was eliminated and what conditions were being forced on an employee. There IS. It's just that neither of your situations meet that standard.

Does anyone know if Ohio recognizes other forms of hostile working environment other than discrimination as described above?? I feel that my environment changed due to retaliation concerning our confrontation of his illegal business practices. There is no such thing as a hostile working environment except one that is due to prohibited discrimination. Your boss becoming unpleasant because you refused to follow his orders simply is not a HWE no matter how many times you ask.
I think you're repeating yourself.

I think you're repeating yourself.
 

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