A friend, 11 years at his company and he finds out...

...that his company is looking for any excuse to fire him so that maybe he won't qualify for unemployment and then they can hire someone cheaper. He found out it was going on behind his back and went to the top. Now they're a little scared about firing him but our guess is they're looking for another excuse in order to lay him off.

lives in dreamland. Unless you work for yourself, and even then it's not a sure thing!

It lasted 11 months, then 150 people (nearly everyone in the San Diego office) got laid off. Most of us, managers and peons alike, were in the same line to file for "unenjoyment" benefits the next morning.

That was in 1981, and since then I have never had any delusion that my job was secure or that a company would take care of me.

What a horrible thing to happen, in your first job.

I had recently moved into my first apartment on my own and bought my first old clunker of a car. With UI benefits and my meager savings, I was able to squeeze by doing some construction work (after this many years I can admit it was under the table).

I found a new, crappy job after four months, worked there for five months, and went on UI again. I did some more construction jobs, and finally in December 1983 I got a technical writing contract that turned into a "permanent" position at an S&L that lasted until the S&L crisis took the company down in early 1990.

UN-fortunately it wasn't my first job that I learned it.

But never the less, better late than never.... lesson learned.

BUT: I work for a very small company. I work directly for the owner. I run the office so I know every detail of the business. For 5 years now as the business has grown, so has my salary.

I could make more at a large company but the tradeoff in stress and BS would not be worth it.

He is by far the coolest boss EVER. Liberal, progressive, honest, fair, etc etc.

I will never go back to corporate America.

Assuming he's just an at-will employee, they can simply terminate his position, lay him off, and create a new position with a different title and different job description.

Sounds like the employer is just being stupid.

"not have to pay unemployment"

Don

In California and other states I am familiar with, the UI premiums paid by an employer are not affected by the reason any particular employee is terminated. It's a flat rate. Benefits are paid by the state.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but the OP's actual words are "...maybe he won't qualify for unemployment".

Generally, if you quit voluntarily or are terminated for cause, you don't qualify for any UI benefits.

Same in TX-- which is why we meticulously keep a record/copy of each and every verbal and written warning/infraction received by an employee-- to prevent employees who are pissed off at some trivial matter to do one spectacular burn-out, get fired over it, and then collect unemployment.

and not by much either. All my other stats were off the chart. Whatever my employer told TWC qualified me for unemployment compensation. I think you basically have to be fired for insubordination, trouble making, going postal, and breaking company rules.

They pay into the state unemployment fund. The state "pays" unemployment.

I can't say for sure that the UI system works the same there as it does in other states.

As I said in my initital response, the company is being stupid.

Over the past 25 years being in the workforce I never could understand the majority of my employers attitudes when it came to spending a dollar to save a dime. Qualifications and seniority meant nothing to them when it came to layoffs. It only mattered as far as how the payroll looked that week. It didn't matter to them how much money they lost because the new people and others less qualified screwed a bunch of projects up, just how much people were getting paid.

"We lost $20k last week in projects and lawsuits but we saved $5k in payroll"

when you have a lot of unemployment claims.

In my time at least it was/is a tax on an employers payroll thus
a cost of doing business that directly affects the company wage scale.
Also, it is tax deductible.

The employee pays for any benefit received in more than one way yet
is forced to beg for it! NEVER feel guilty about taking what you can get
as you deserve it 10 times over.

EVIDENCE created at the time of an incident is always the strongest thing a fired employee can bring to support his point of view. By putting it in writing, he creates a piece of evidence which requires his employer to respond, and to either admit it or deny it, likely unconvincingly.

If he is fired, he will have laid a paper trail that helps him GET unemployment benefits.

And I never could understand why employers fret so much over someone getting unemployment. In my state you pay a premium based on a percentage your employees income. Sure it affects the rate but it's pennies on the dollar compared to the benefits it pays out. Being in business for myself for four years I paid around $130 every three months but now I get $215 a week for six months.

Greedy motherf**kers is all I got to say.

An employee sends emails to others in the company, and thinks they are covered from an evidentiary basis, but the instant they're let go, they lose access to their company email address. Anything on their work computer or cell phone is suddenly unavailable to them. The evidence they thought they had is all in the hands of their former employer.

I'm simply giving him the same advice I give anyone who is facing some controversy at work: If you don't document it in writing and keep copies of such communications off the premises, you will likely lose any claim you try to assert in the future. Without video, audio or hard copy to support a fired employee, many employee claims are more difficult to advance, and almost impossible to find an attorney to take. Most lawyers want to see evidence to support a claim, which is considered much more important than the story one tells about the incident.

Whether the case is wrongful discharge, discrimination in firing, retaliation, or to avoid paying benefits, it is the documented case that prevails. Everyone has a story to tell, but without quality supporting evidence, that story will likely be considered as sour grapes.

the company does not want to see on the front page of the newspaper.
And an extra copy for his company's competitor.

for 3 - 4 months down the road so that the employee will have to have got another job before the company is busted.

for unemployment because it was obvious that the reason they fired me was NOT justifiable. Good luck to your friend.

I've seen it happen a few times.

...that if word gets out around town that they're trying to get rid of this guy the competition will hire him on the spot. It's a small field so I can't give out too much about what he does.

Tell him some guy you don't know in San Diego wishes him the best!

:hi:

A friend of mine is an attorney with the department who handles appeal cases for unlawfully terminated cases and for people whose employers did not carry unemployment insurance. I'll try to call her and see what she recommends.

n/t

For those unfamiliar with the lingo, it means intentionally setting the employee up to fail and then firing (or not promoting) the employee because he or she failed.

your hard work and loyalty to your employer will bring kudos. I learned the hard way.

...my mother told me that the corporate philosophy was that you were supposed to bw loyal to them, but don't you expect the same from them.

Unfortunately, it's gotten even worse since them.

PEACE!

General Dynamics hired him in 1956. He worked for them as an engineer until he finally retired in 1987. He was briefly laid off a few times when they were between contracts.

I don't expect to ever have that kind of relationship with an employer. (Actually it's too late, I'm already 50 years old and don't plan to work full-time past 60.) :-)

...and I'm 53.

I'm starting to think that self-employment is the ONLY option.

PEACE!

That's what I did and it was great for a few years but now I'm in the same boat as everybody else. Not too good when your business model is based on doing people's extra work but on the plus side, as I mentioned above I've been paying my own unemployment insurance for many years and now I get to collect.

I hadn't even considered doing that. :patriot:

PEACE!

Avoid the online websites that offer to do it cheap. I did mine through a very well known one and they forgot to do a lot of stuff that almost cost me a small fortune in state fines. By the time my accountant fixed everything it ended up costing me what she would have charged me if she had done it for me face to face.

so that he can go to the labor board and sue the beejeebus out of those bastards.

are looking for any excuse to get rid of you.

Being loyal to a company is just dumb anymore.

I knew for 6 months that they were trying to get rid of me. They listened in on my phone calls, opened my mail and and scanned my emails. Then they accused me of not turning a report in on time. (my boss took the reort out of the department mailbox a at 5 p.m. and hid it in her desk drawer for 2 days. The report mysterioulsy appeared after I was fired.) Welcome to the work world. When you eat in the lunch room, always sit with your back to the wall, because you never know where the knives are coming from.

About 18 years ago all the field employees where I had just started working were planning a walk-out on the company for them not wanting to pay holiday pay on days off during the week. There is no federal laws that force private companies, at least in my state to do so. Small company, ten field people who were paid hourly but there were five office people including the owner who got paid salaries and therefore got paid the same. All ten, face to face agreed not to come in the following Monday but when that day came only three people, myself one of them actually stayed home. The other seven came in, accused us three of being trouble makers and that we should be let go and in place of our wages then maybe they could get a few of the holidays off with pay. Nobody got fired but there was a few ass kickings the next week which made one of the lying, back stabbing pricks quit. I quit shortly after myself for better pay and holiday pay.

12 years on the job and never even a file with one complaint as to my job performance or from a customer yet because some new GM and a worker who was his friend they went behind my back to fire me .

You ever hear about the at will clause , look it up. You have no recourse if they fire you and they need no reason why. Most states have this at will crap law. You work there at will and they keep you at will. The only amendments are race discrimination and sex discrimination or harassment.

The company I worked for tried to contest my un-employment but their lawyer never showed up so I kept the benefits , it was a scare tactic as far as I can see.

I think getting fired but being on the job for 11 years will render un-employment benefits as does getting lay ed off , it's usually if you quit you are out.

But good luck suing , unless you have contract that was broken no one will even talk to you about suing.

a few weeks ago. She worked for a major credit card company. You know the one with the cool ads with Ellen and the animals. Anyway they are letting tons of people go but they don't want to call it a layoff. She was given three different reasons as to why she was fired. She filed for unemployment but it's in arbitration. She doesn't know if she will get it or not.

People are being let go for not kissing ass and pretending that they like it. Bad attitude, insubordination, un-promotable are some of the excuses. Her managers and supervisors are loving this shit. The bad economy that is. They keep threatening people below them and telling them there's 200 applications in their email or in their files. My wife got cussed out for interrupting her supervisor while she was thinking about something last week.

One generally doesn't get rich as college professor, but once you are tenured you have reasonable job security (albeit not total job security).

They eliminated 22 teacher positions and closed several schools before this school year began and there's probably been more since that hasn't gotten reported in the media. We need more important things I guess like the multi-million dollar equestrian center that the city just built in '05 so that the mayor and all his rich buddies across the state could have a place to play with their thoroughbred horses. You go there on any day and you might see one local tag.

Luckily my sister-in-law is bilingual or she could have possibly been one of those let go as she only started teaching here last year.

the corporation values will remain. Long live the corporation!