My ex-employer tried to stop me from collecting unemployment compensation

[undeterred]

but they lost... it's been held back for 3 weeks and it all went into my account overnight. Fortunately the State of Wisconsin knows a lying idiot when they talk to one. :party:

[raccoon]

1. Good for you! Glad you got it.

Did the former employer try to say you had quit?

[LaraMN]

2. Woo-Hoo!

Good news- I bet that's a big relief!

[LostinVA]

3. GOOD -- that's a last slimy trick slimy bosses try

[grace0418]

8. Well, there's *one* more slimy trick.

This actually happened to a friend of mine.

She worked for a small, husband-and-wife-lead stationery company, doing pretty much ALL of their design work. They treated her like shit and she hated the job. My friend's husband also worked for the company as an IT contractor, setting up all their computers and fixing their networks, etc.

Even though she hated the job, she left on good terms to work freelance. They told her and her husband that they would give them excellent references. My friend never trusted them much and didn't really need the reference anyway, but her husband was having trouble finding work so he did.

He could never really figure out why interviews would go so well but then he would never get called back. Then a prospective employer finally called him and said "You should know that XYZ company is giving you a really negative reference." He ended up finding out that they would intitially act like they barely remembered who he was, then they'd say something like "Ooooh, yeah... that guy. Well, he did a couple things around here but he really screwed them up so we didn't hire him again."

How evil is that? They weren't even trying to get revenge on him, they were trying to screw my friend because she left. Her husband never had any beef with them at all and they were always happy with his work. They are pure evil.

[LostinVA]

9. That is also totally illegal -- OMG

[grace0418]

13. Oh I know! But look how long they got away with it before he found out!

If that one employer hadn't called him who knows when he would've figured it out. I always thought he should sue but he never did.

[ThomCat]

4. I'm glad you got it.

:toast:

I hope you find a great new job and don't need it for long. :)

[catmandu57]

5. I think they all do

I'm glad yours came through. The only time i ever drew unemployment my boss did the same thing, same result.

[Callalily]

6. I'm so happy

that you'll be able to collect, but after all, you're entitled to unemployment comp. Some employers are just so irresponsible and unscrupulous.

Good luck with your job hunting.

[grace0418]

7. YAY! Sometimes the good guy does finish first!

Glad you got your money.

[u4ic]

10. w00t!

Way to go! Empowering, isn't it? :bounce: :toast: :bounce:

[Patiod]

11. That happened to me!

Feels great, doesn't it?

Reader's Digest version:
Hated job
Crazy employer had hair-trigger temper
Got him angry enough to fire me (without any malfeasance)
Got him to repeat "don't bother to come in on Monday"
Filed for unemployment
Crazy employer's wife called, saying "you weren't really fired - you know his temper"
I said "tell that to PA unemployment"
Got enough to tide me over until I found something saner (relatively quickly, but the few weeks of unemployment comp helped keep the bills from drowning me)

Hope you get something better soon!

[JohnnyBoots]

18. In PA you can still collect if you get fired? What

if you quit? I was supposed to get laid off today, but my boss's boss is going to make me quit so that I have a hard time getting unemployment. How does it work in PA, any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

[undeterred]

19. Don't quit, don't get fired for gross misconduct

If you get terminated or laid off or something in the middle you can collect in most states. But if you clearly leave the job voluntarily you will not get a dime. And if you clearly do something really bad you will not collect either. I am not from PA but there is a huge subjective area as to what constitutes gross misconduct. Breaking the law definitely is but anything short of that might not be.

[Jimbo S]

12. Yea!

:toast:

[undeterred]

14. I just found out that it can be appealled by either side

Obviously if I had lost I would be doing that.

I don't know if they will, I sure hope not.

There is really nothing new to say. I know someone who did this and it went badly because all her ex co-workers had to lie about her or lose their jobs and it was totally demoralizing. I guess it depends how vindictive the company is.

I did talk to one of the adjudicators this week and it wasn't hard to convince him that the people in my HR department are just really stupid. Everyone's calendar (Microsoft Outlook) is shared by default. If you don't want to share it, unshare it. Or leave it shared, but mark certain appts as private. Everyone in the company knows how to do this except people in HR. So they accused me of reading their email when I didn't. I could explain this to someone who works for the State, but not someone who works for Human Resources... what does that tell you about the general intelligence level?

[mojowork_n]

15. Funny, I filled out my Wisconsin Job Development form

just yesterday. I don't know what's going to happen with my claim, yet.

The form itself has changed since I last had to fill one out. The Republicans in charge of the state legislature the last few years must have had in it. There are 5 or 6 questions that are all designed to see if you were guilty of "insubordination". I don't remember that having been in there, before. (I think the form used to stop with "misconduct", which was much more straightforward. Now, if you have a shitty attitude about your crappy job or your insanely rigid, anal-retentive boss, you may be denied benefits.) What a crock! ("Oh, the Humanity!!")

I used to think "insubordination" was something that only applied to people in the military, but I stand corrected:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insubordination

Corporations are getting more militant all the time, and the people in charge of "Human Resources" are going to make that 2-word term the gold standard yardstick for Most Obvious Oxymoron. (Now that 'military intelligence' doesn't seem to be used as commonly, thanks no doubt to all the psyops "journalists" and "p.r." people.)

[undeterred]

16. That was on top of the form I filled out too

Violation of written work rule/insubordination

Fortunately I was never written up or given a review at all in the course of a year- all the problems I had were with a new manager I had at the end. The guy is a habitual liar, and I would have been insubordinate, but I didn't last long enough. I wrote a 3 page single spaced document to accompany the form though. The adjudicator talked to me for a long time on the phone and he was really nice.

There was no written work rule against what I did, and I think the IT rules are too complicated for my HR department to understand.

[graywarrior]

17. Whoa, that's great. Makes me feel good that someone got what they needed on both sides.

Congratulations! Sometimes the good guy does win.

[idgiehkt]

20. I'm so glad to hear this

I'm so glad they lost, they deserved to lose, and how. I'm sure this is a great relief. Yep, I bet the people at the state office deal with all kinds of garbage from employers not wanting to pay up.

:woohoo: