commentator
Senior Member
One more time. THEY ARE NOT CONTENDING THAT THEY FIRED YOU FOR A GOOD MISCONDUCT REASON. THEY ARE CONTENDING THAT YOU QUIT THE JOB. That is the reason your claim has been stopped at this time.
This is Regardless of what they say about your poor performance before you either quit or were fired. You say as many times as you can work it in that you did the job to the best of your abilities, and that you did not quit the job. There was plenty of time for you to be rescheduled before the end of the probationary period. But you were not given a chance to reschedule. Your employer fired you.
Your employer did not believe you were sick. You contend you were sick, too sick to attend the new certification test. You have a doctor's statement. You received medications. You have the better story. That no one in the office thought you appeared to be sick is irrelevant. So what? Your doctor gave you a statement. You say you were too ill to be there for the certification test. That is the ONLY issue.
Forget about the crap about the 90 day probationary period. In TN, believe me, people can and do fire everyone they want to during the 90 day probationary period. But they could anyhow, there's no reason they cannot fired you on the 91st day with the same results. If they cannot show a valid misconduct reason to terminate you, you are still going to be approved for unemployment insurance. Regardless of performance issues, or whether they disliked your socks or whatever, they don't have a misconduct reason, they are not going to be able to fire you without your being able to get unemployment insurance if you are otherwise qualified.
The upside for the employer is that if they fire you quickly, their percentage of the unemployment benefits you will be receiving is minsicule. Every employer in the base period has a percentage of the charges, based on how long the person worked for them. So this employer's part of the charges if your claim is approved would be very very tiny. But they still went to the trouble of hiring this third party and fighting it tooth and nail. So win it. You did not quit, you did the job to the best of your ability. They fired you. Because you did not take the probationary test that they had rescheduled for you. You did not take it because you were too sick on that day to come in to work. You have a medical excuse. Stop talking.
If they had fired you after the 90 days was up because you had REFUSED to take the certification test and pass it, that might fall into misconduct. But remember, they didn't fire you. YOU QUIT, at least that's what they're contending. They can't have it both ways. They can't say, "Well, he quit, but we could've fired him anyhow, because he did blah blah blah.....(or didn't do blah blah blah.) If they say you quit, they can't have a go at saying you should have been fired anyhow. It's an either/or statement. The hearing officer will know this. They are dealing only with your quit issue, unless you are dumb enough to let the other party make it all about your performance and how you walked out of the first certification meeting, and so on and so forth, weakening your case and making it sound like you might have had a real good reason to quit.
If they "cross examine" you, (maybe you should only say "ask me questions" since you seem to visualize this cross examination as much more than it will be) you are not really obligated to answer them except very briefly. If they say, "So what happened the last time you took the examination?" You can say, "I didn't complete it. It was rescheduled. The next time it was scheduled, I was too ill to be there that day." If they go off onto "Why didn't you complete it?" say, "I'm not sure." Stop talking. Look pleasant. It is entirely possible that the hearing officer will call relevance before it goes any further than that. If I trained them, they sure would.
If they ask you a yes/no question, give them a one word answer. "Isn't it true that you said blah blah blah...." Say "No." Stop talking. Smile pleasantly. They cannot force you to answer the way they want you to, and if you start off down some big self justification trail, you will have done just that.
For the last time, forget about the bad bad person in the agency who sent your form to the wrong address. If it had been sent to the right address, you'd have gone through this whole thing a few months earlier, that's the only difference it made. IT IS NOT AN ISSUE TO BE BROUGHT UP IN THE HEARING!!!!!!!
This is Regardless of what they say about your poor performance before you either quit or were fired. You say as many times as you can work it in that you did the job to the best of your abilities, and that you did not quit the job. There was plenty of time for you to be rescheduled before the end of the probationary period. But you were not given a chance to reschedule. Your employer fired you.
Your employer did not believe you were sick. You contend you were sick, too sick to attend the new certification test. You have a doctor's statement. You received medications. You have the better story. That no one in the office thought you appeared to be sick is irrelevant. So what? Your doctor gave you a statement. You say you were too ill to be there for the certification test. That is the ONLY issue.
Forget about the crap about the 90 day probationary period. In TN, believe me, people can and do fire everyone they want to during the 90 day probationary period. But they could anyhow, there's no reason they cannot fired you on the 91st day with the same results. If they cannot show a valid misconduct reason to terminate you, you are still going to be approved for unemployment insurance. Regardless of performance issues, or whether they disliked your socks or whatever, they don't have a misconduct reason, they are not going to be able to fire you without your being able to get unemployment insurance if you are otherwise qualified.
The upside for the employer is that if they fire you quickly, their percentage of the unemployment benefits you will be receiving is minsicule. Every employer in the base period has a percentage of the charges, based on how long the person worked for them. So this employer's part of the charges if your claim is approved would be very very tiny. But they still went to the trouble of hiring this third party and fighting it tooth and nail. So win it. You did not quit, you did the job to the best of your ability. They fired you. Because you did not take the probationary test that they had rescheduled for you. You did not take it because you were too sick on that day to come in to work. You have a medical excuse. Stop talking.
If they had fired you after the 90 days was up because you had REFUSED to take the certification test and pass it, that might fall into misconduct. But remember, they didn't fire you. YOU QUIT, at least that's what they're contending. They can't have it both ways. They can't say, "Well, he quit, but we could've fired him anyhow, because he did blah blah blah.....(or didn't do blah blah blah.) If they say you quit, they can't have a go at saying you should have been fired anyhow. It's an either/or statement. The hearing officer will know this. They are dealing only with your quit issue, unless you are dumb enough to let the other party make it all about your performance and how you walked out of the first certification meeting, and so on and so forth, weakening your case and making it sound like you might have had a real good reason to quit.
If they "cross examine" you, (maybe you should only say "ask me questions" since you seem to visualize this cross examination as much more than it will be) you are not really obligated to answer them except very briefly. If they say, "So what happened the last time you took the examination?" You can say, "I didn't complete it. It was rescheduled. The next time it was scheduled, I was too ill to be there that day." If they go off onto "Why didn't you complete it?" say, "I'm not sure." Stop talking. Look pleasant. It is entirely possible that the hearing officer will call relevance before it goes any further than that. If I trained them, they sure would.
If they ask you a yes/no question, give them a one word answer. "Isn't it true that you said blah blah blah...." Say "No." Stop talking. Smile pleasantly. They cannot force you to answer the way they want you to, and if you start off down some big self justification trail, you will have done just that.
For the last time, forget about the bad bad person in the agency who sent your form to the wrong address. If it had been sent to the right address, you'd have gone through this whole thing a few months earlier, that's the only difference it made. IT IS NOT AN ISSUE TO BE BROUGHT UP IN THE HEARING!!!!!!!
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