any wrong doing here?

[swalsh411]

You keep asking the same question. They have to show misconduct. Any and all evidence (like the letter) or testimony you may have to counter that claim you will want to show, including something your husband heard if he wants to attend the hearing. Yes you can bring notes but keep it short and to the point.

What "should" have happened is not relevant. Forget this whole notion of fairness it's not relevant to the unemployment matter. If they can't make a good case for misconduct, you should not be disqualified for that reason.

 

[commentator]

If this is an unemployment hearing, then yes, there will be three parties represented, usually. This will be you, the employer or their selected representative, and the hearing officer. You could, if you so choose, be represented by an attorney, but do not take your husband with you. You do not need his testimony that he heard your boss say it was lack of work. You may say as part of your testimony that your husband was on the line or you were on speaker phone when you talked to your employer and he heard your employer clearly say you were let go for lack of work. If you bring your husband, he will probably have to sit outside, would be allowed in only to say, "Yes, I heard the phone call. They said lack of work" You present the registered letter you received that said you were let go for poor performance. You state that you had no prior warnings, etc.

The hearing will be a very formal structured process. You will both be sworn in, and it will be recorded. You will only allowed to speak at your assigned time. "Taking notes" is rather superfluous, as once you have your hearing, a decision will be made. If you lose this decision, your paperwork, the transcript of the whole hearing and all evidence presented goes to the board of review. But you will not be given another chance to state your case, so you can't carry your notes off to someone else and then sue them. You are going through the legal process with this hearing.

Do not go in with a written argument or letter or document that you try to submit. You may, of course, have talking points written on your hand for when you present your case, but mostly, you will present, then the employer will present their case, and there will be opportunity for you to question the employer, the employer to question you, and the hearing officer will ask any questions they feel may help them understand the circumstances better.

The hearing officer only wants to hear things related to your termination. You may as part of the reason you believe you were let go bring in that you have had several health issues that have required you to be out some of the time, and you feel this may be the reason that you have been singled out. But if you had medically approved absences, and you were very diligent when you were at work, no, poor performance is not misconduct. If you keep saying you always did the job to the best of your ability, and that you were not even aware that the employer was in any way finding your performance unacceptable, you should have a very good chance to be approved.

Unemployment insurance is all you can get. It isn't right it isn't fair that you can be treated this way, but unemployment is the only recourse you have.

 

[commentator]

Oh, and the reason they are doing this to you instead of honestly admitting that you are being let go because the position is being cut or because they do not have the money to pay a full timer any more? The reason they are doing this is because if you are let go through no fault of yours, and you receive unemployment benefits, their company's tax rate that they are charged for their unemployment taxes each quarter will go up.

Unemployment insurance ultimately (through the system) is paid by and costs the employers of the state. It is not based on wages you have paid in on yourself like social security (most of the time, in most of the states for patti!) or from the taxpayers money, like food stamps and welfare programs.

So they are basically penny-pinching by claiming to have a valid reason to terminate you. They are hoping you will either become discouraged and not file for benefits, will not be approved for benefits, or will go out and find another job immediately before the benefits are approved so they won't be on the hook for having paid out any unemployment benefits. It is not illegal for them to use the process this way, using up their appeals of your benefits. But it is usually pretty easy to tell when an employer is making things up. You stick to your story, be polite, professional, and hopefully you will be able to win and move on quickly. Unemployment insurance isn't much money, it is finite, (it ends at a certain proscribed date, whether you still need it or not) and you must make job searches and extra efforts to receive it.

 

[taddles]

again thank you

i appreciate your advice. it helped greatly having a place to vent and get advice while waiting to hear the outcome of my claimant questionairre.
it helps me keep my thoughts in order on the chance that i may have to go to a hearing. my motto, hope for the best but be prepared for the worst.
i feel after gathering information from this site that i will be well prepared to present my case if need be. like i said before, it is what it is when you lose your job and i do not expect a pity party, i just never expected to be blind sided with the willful misconduct from owner after being told lack of work from manager. and the fact that the specific reason of misconduct is not on the form makes my mind spin as to what exactly they think they are accusing me of. that is why this forum has been so helpful. hard to figure out what i am defending and will not find out unless i have to take the next step and go to a hearing. i do beleive in my heart of hearts that it is exactly what was stated here, and they are trying whatever means necessary to avoid any financial increase in their unemployment responsibility.

 

[taddles]

received outcome

i was found to still be eligible for by benifits based on the information i provided. now whether they will appeal this is still to be seen. my question however, is moving forward with a job search. since they had sent a letter stating poor job performance, that was what the determination was found to be. but now when looking for a new job and they ask, why i left.....i am at a loss. it does not sound very desireable to tell them i was fired for not being a good worker. and if they ask if they can contact employer for reference, i do not imagine i will get a very glowing one. so how do i work around this? i was there alittle over 3 years and the place of employment she recruited me from, she is still a consultant for them and has extremely close ties. so i feel i have this 4+ years of a big black whole.
please advise
thanks again

 

[commentator]

Your future employers will never ever have any access to what transpired in your unemployment hearing, what reason your past employer told the unemployment office they terminated you for. (Unless you are dumb enough to tell them yourself.) If you do, be sure and tell them that this was overturned, and you were approved to get benefits!

But a better thing to do would be "left to seek other job opportunities. Will discuss." Explain that work was becoming slow where you were, and after three and a half years with good reports and evaluations, that you were told you were being let go due to lack of work. You were quite happy to hear this actually, as you were very ready to seek other opportunities for a job with a better fit for you. See if you can find someone, maybe someone who was over your supervisor or who supervised or worked with you some capacity to give you a reference from that place. Don't be dumb enough to list this woman as a reference if you are sure she will not give you a good one.

 

[taddles]

thanks

the sad thing is, the owner was the one fighting the unemployment, then my manager directly under her will do nothing to put herself in harms way as she is paid a pretty penny there and there are only 2 remaining full timers and one part timer. one FT is the mother of the PT and the other FT i was friendly with but have not heard from her since my dismissal. my assuption (and i only assume this) they were asked to not communicate with me til UE was straightened out. so it is now only a company of 5...no one left for reference, that is why so troubling as to how not to make it effect me negativly now

 

[commentator]

Of course the owner is the one fighting the unemployment, as it is he who will incur the costs.

I repeat, you do not have to have a good reference from these people in order to ever work again. Don't be telling yourself this story over and over. If they are not going to give you one, you will have to cover this time, don't try to say you were unemployed or not list this whole stint of employment on resumes, but do be proactive about why you left, that it was small, that you got this and that experience. Most places will not really get deeply involved in trashing a former employee in a reference, and you do not even know for sure that they are going to do this.

They fight against paying unemployment any way they can because ultimately it does cost the company money. But as I said, no one else but you and they will ever have any access to your unemployment records or what they said on the unemployment paperwork. That's one reason why you can't go back and sue them for saying things that weren't true, even if the claim went in your favor.