Former Employee Filing for Unemployment Benefits

If she is being considered for benefits and you feel you had amble grounds to dismiss her, something is awry, e.g., she lied on her application.

I could tell you real horror stories about employees who aggressively turned against me after I let them go. Even nice people can get wacky when shunned. Beware.

Aside from consulting a professional in employment law, be sure that you have locked her out of everything--deadbolts, accounts, passwords, and if there were any accounts of yours with whom she dealt regularly, you might be wise to contact them so they are clear that she is not employed by you (but your attorney can advise you about that).

Stephanie, A person can qualify for unemployment even if they are totally incompetent. But if you told her to do A, and she decided she wanted to do B, and did B, they will likely deny her benefits, and not charge your account.

I guess I'll add my personal experience. I fired someone who was beyond incompetent. She applied for benefits. I always ignored those notices in the past. However, several lies included in the notice made me respond. They denied her benefits because she kept on trying new things she was not ready for and I just kept telling her to do her job.

By the way, she claimed on the application that another women in the office was spying on her and that women was pregnant with my baby! Well, she should be spying because she was the office manager, and my fiance. Now we've been married for twelve years and the baby is about to graduate from 6th grade.

John

Stephanie,

Here is what you can expect:

First, and foremost, this is business as usual for employment security. And, most likely for your employee. She may need to apply and be denied to get other benefits from the government.

Second, fill the form out honestly and accurately. An employment security person will evaluate her claim, and depending on precisely the circumstances deny or approve her claim.

Third, even if her claim is approved, it really won't be much of a hit to you financially. It's the very serious L and I claims that become business killers due to increasing costs in industries with very high ratings.

Fourth, let's say her claim is denied and she appeals. You then may need to appear "telephonically" while an administrative law judge conducts a hearing, which will most likely result in the claim still being denied.

While many "for cause" firings do still result in approval of benefits, many do not.

Try not to take this personally and recognize that this is a fact of life in doing business. It's probably a very good time to do a complete review of both your hiring and termination practices.

In regards to challenging your former employee's claim for unemployment benefits, the important thing to remember is that you're running your business. You have to look out for yourself. Because no one else will. If you don't think she deserves it, say so. It's just a sales pitch.

I am sure that many of us have been fired from a job at one point in our lives. Sometimes fairly. Sometimes unfairly. That's life. Some of us have gotten unemployment. Sometimes we don't. Again, that's life.

Theresa's post was right on target based on my experiences running the day to day operations of a mid-sized architectural firm.

If you plan on contesting, it would be a good idea to have documentation of why she was fired (reprimands, write ups, etc) and usually you need to present proof that you informed the employee of his violations. Otherwise, Employment Security tends to favor the employee.