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Need Help/Advice Badly (Laid off or Fired?)

E

EtOH

Senior member
I had the most screwed up dismissal from work this week and I need some advice from any of you out there who have dealt with this. I need it badly!

Just a note I am in Georgia, so if you have Georgia specific information I would be even further in your debt. Ok, so here is what happened.

Monday morning I got an email saying there was a meeting at 11:30. I get to the meeting and my supervisor and the HR chick are there, I could tell this wasn't going to be good. To make things short I was "let go".

No one has said whether it was a lay off or a firing, but that is standard practice. I can get no confirmation of being fired or laid off from anyone because discussing it would "violate internal rules".

Things that point to laid off:
2 weeks severance
All employee evaluations have been positive
Have recieved bonus all 3 quarters employeed
Have never had a disciplinary action against me

Things that point to fired:
Someone mumbled performance issues during meeting
Recently have had family commitments that lowered my availability for travel to below 40% (note that when hired it was agreed on 30%)


Now for the things that I don't know what or how to handle.

Insurance. Due to being laid-off/fired on the 31st I think my insurance is terminated. Does anyone know if they have to continue it for X amount of days before terminating it?

Reference. Applying for new jobs kind of requires new employers to contact older employers. Since I have no idea the conditions for my getting let go I don't know what to do here. My supervisor at this company was my supervisor at the previous company I worked for and it would REALLY suck if I couldn't use my last 2 jobs as references. This leads into the next thing.

Unemployment. If I go try to get unemployement (which I am planning on) it could possibly piss off my old employer enough that it would put any reference that I may have in jeopardy. I have a feeling that that is the reason for the lack of communication etc, to keep me from going in to get unemployment.

So guys and gals. What the #$%*& do I do now? I would appreciate any and all advice from anyone who has been in this situation before.

EtOH
 
I'm also in GA, and in regard to insurance, i think they have to make it available to you for 3 or 6 months. Meaning if they paid for it before, they have to give you the option to continue paying for it out your own pocket. I think. . .

Sorry I don't know more, and sorry you lost your job.

Also, there are companies you can hire to call your former employer that pose as a new potential employer to see what kind of reference they give you.
 
Sounds like you were laid off. I'm not sure about insurance and what not, but I do know that when an new employer calls for a reference the old employer can only give the job description and the pay that you got. They can't say anything disrespectful or damaging. Its against the law, and its standard business practice.

 
I don't know about Georgia but here in NC it is illegal for a previous employer to give you a bad reference. At best, they can give a neutral reference. In most cases a neutral is all you will get because they can also get sued for giving too positive of one. Also, the next job will probably contact your previous job's HR department and will probably never talk to your ex-supervisor.

Not sure about the insurance, might get 30 days after, might be gone already.

In no way should you let the company decide on your unemployment...and they can not give you a bad reference because of it. This is the best revenge against them because they pay a lot of money towards your unemployment insurance and it will cost them.

Doesn't sound like you were fired. Either way the unemployment commission could probably tell you once they get your paperwork.
 
I was in a similar situation last year... actually a year to the day. Insurance ends on the last day that you work. They should have the option of letting you continue to pay it out of your pocket. Like a previous poster said, file for unemployment. They will ask you why your employment was terminated. Tell them that they gave you no real reason. When I lost my job, I was told that I "lacked the motivation and skills necessary for the good of the institution", which, to me, is a load of crap. I was there for 7 months, and never had any negative feedback from my superiors. The people I was in contact with on a daily basis said that the computer systems I was in charge of were working better than they had in a long time, and the work requests were getting taken care of faster than they ever had. I related all of this to the workforce commission when I applied for unemployment, and they thought it sounded odd. The only thing about unemployment, and this may vary from state to state (I'm in Texas) is that they look at the last full quarter that you were employed, and the quarter before that, to determine compensation.

To me, it looks like it will be hard to determine if you were laid-off or fired. It really doesn't matter. As long as you were there long enough, you should qualify for unemployment. I hope everything works out for you. Good luck, and keep us posted.
 
To update the situation as per dates I was from 4/30/02 through 3/31/03, so 11 months total. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.


**OOPS, not a time traveller**


EtOH
 
Originally posted by: EtOH
To update the situation as per dates I was from 4/30/03 through 3/31/03, so 11 months total. Not sure if that makes a difference or not.

EtOH
Click to expand...
Are you a time traveler?😕

Sorry to hear about your job. Sounds like you were laid off to me. File for unemployment.
 
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