Okay, I think you need to change the way you are looking at this whole set up. What you'd like to to is quit your job, file that unemployment claim, and have it kick in immediately and start paying you the max per week until you find another good job. You hate what you are doing right now, and would like to quit, but can't afford to. Unfortunately, you're stuck because you've stayed too long and collected too many grievances.
In other words, you feel you've been humiliated and demeaned and talked bad about and demoted....yet you've continued to show up for work and kept doing it and doing it and taking it and taking it. Way back when they demoted you, that might've been a reason to quit and be able to draw unemployment benefits, but you didn't, you accepted the new position and demotion and kept coming back, thus accepting that this was what your job was to be from now on.
In order to quit your job and receive unemployment benefits, you have to show that you have a valid, work related (in most cases) reason to quit the job, that you have exhausted all reasonable alternatives to overcome the problem or reason or "way they are treating you" and that having done all that, and the problem is not resolved, you had NO other reasonable alternative than to quit. You've done far too much shilly-shallying around with a job you hated, that you felt you were being mistreated at, and put up with far too many little this, and then this and then they did this and this and this.....It's not a good possibility at all that you would be able to show good cause to quit your job at this point.
If you quit, the BURDEN OF PROOF that you had this good cause, and that you'd exhausted all reasonable alternatives is upon you. If you are fired from a job, the employer has the BURDEN OF PROOF that they can document that they had a valid work related misconduct reason to fire you. They have to show that they gave you full knowledge of what they were asking of you, that you were given every chance to do what they wanted, that it was explained to you that you were in danger of being fired, and that knowing what you had to do to keep the job, you knowingly did it anyway.
And this proving thing can go either way. When a person has been with a company for a long time, quite unhappily, what happens is a long series of events that make you not happy with them (wanting to quit) or that makes them unhappy with you (wanting to fire you) and when you go into either a quit or fired situation and start discussing it for unemployment approval, there get to be too many issues very quickly. It's called the "kitchen sink" issue.
The employer did this, and this and this, and then last year, he did changed my job title and demoted me, and now he's done this and this, and last month they wouldn't let me park in the employee parking lot any more and then this month he's told me I have to take out the trash and he told someone I was old and useless**************. on and on and on. No real clear cut reason you can point to and say, THERE, that's why I quit this job.
Or the employer will say, well, he has had an absentee problem for ages, and then he was insubordinate a couple of times, and last Christmas he took off too much time off, and he's always complaining about things and now he's refusing to turn in his mileage on time......lots of odds and ends, no real clear cut misconduct reason for the unemployment system to say they had a clear cut misconduct reason to fire this person. It works both ways.
Nobody wants to be off work without unemployment. No employer wants to have to pay unemployment benefits, as it costs the company money. If you quit, it is really really tough to hit that valid reason to quit the job standard. So my advice to you is, after all this, DO NOT quit unless you have another job to go to. It's very true, a doctor's statement that the job is harmful to your health is going to be unlikely to get you unemployment insurance if you quit. It just doesn't work that way.
If the employer asks you to do something to believe to be unreasonable, like go clean the toilets, or accept a 50% pay cut, or if they try to drag you outside, tie you to a bush and beat you with switches, make your stand right there. Say, "This is unreasonable. I am leaving." And leave, right then. Don't come in a year later and say, "My employer dragged me outside last April.....etc." THEN file for unemployment.
If you are filing, forget about hiring an "unemployment attorney." There are labor attorneys, but very few of them specialize in unemployment claims. There is just not that much leeway, not that much different an attorney can do for you that won't be done by the agency. And it's just not that much money at stake. You can only draw a limited amount of benefits (usually less than any regular job) for a short period of time, whether or not you have found another job. It will take six to eight weeks after you leave the job to get any unemployment claim started and rolling if it is disputed by the employer, even if it is eventually approved. And yes, your going to school may turn out to be a disqualifying issue in regard to unemployment insurance. Unemployment insurance is not going to provide you with previews about what you might qualify for or whether or not you'd be approved before you have quit your job or been fired from your job or are out of work for some reason.
Personally, I would get heebee jeebies big time from a person I was interviewing if I got wind they were trying to pretend their current employer did not exist and I somehow found out that wasn't true. I don't care if you have a job counselor, there's not an absolute guarantee that your current employer is the only reason you are not getting hired somewhere. And as we have sawed out many times here, even if they are giving you bad references, which, if they want to get rid of you, they should be moving heaven and earth to help you find something else, because then they're SURE they'll not have to pay for your being approved for unemployment benefits, there is always potential for you to get something else. Even if you had to talk something out of your field or not as good as you had, you could, at that point, continue to apply for better jobs especially after you have completed your education.
