<p>I have a son who is almost 22 and has one year left of school. He has worked for a retail store for 3 years now, and since last summer has worked full-time because the choice was 10 hours/wk or full-time. Before that he worked a lot, maybe 25-30 hours.</p>
<p>He has had it. He just applied for a promotion and didn’t get it. He works harder than many other people and he also sees new people getting hired earning almost as much as him. He has a fair amount of schoolwork to do and I think his unhappiness at work is making him…*****y…you could say. He really hates the job and wants to quit. He doesn’t care if he has another job, he has plenty of $ banked.</p>
<p>He has learned that if you get fired there is only a 5 week penalty and you can collect unemployment. The idea of him doing that bothers me but I can’t explain why, I know all you adults get it though.</p>
<p>Why is it so terrible for him to take a break and collect? It does seem silly to quit when you could get fired and collect…</p>
<p>It would be nice if he didn’t have to work for the rest of the semester, he could actually do his school work. He is not a die hard student, and will sacrifice study time to go out and play. He can’t miss work…so school loses out.</p>
<p>Please don’t get high and mighty when you reply. I’m looking for reasons to explain why it’s not a good plan. My husband gets all mad at the idea because HE CAN’T DO IT, but he is grown and has responsibilites, my son doesn’t really have any at this point in life. Hopefully it is not too late. He was really mad yesterday when he got passed over, again. (I think age might have something to do with it, and their interview process is weird, more about corporate views than about actual work experience and productivity…he had highest sales in his dept last month-and he’s been there the shortest of anyone)</p>
<p>I don’t think I would try to get fired. That’s just my opinion. He has a good and longterm relationship with this company which could be much more valuable when he goes looking for “real” jobs than you might think. Having that on your resume is much nicer than collecting unemployment. </p>
<p>He might just be cutting his nose to spit his face…working less now…but not having that good job history for future employers.</p>
<p>He should ask if he can reduce his hours. If they say no…then he should get a letter of reference and go job hunting.</p>
<p>I agree about simply looking for a new job. Just because he can collect doesn’t mean he should. It just looks better to get another job than just quitting and collecting. It will benefit him in the long run</p>
<p>I’m going to echo thumper. Ask if he can reduce hours and if not, then look for a new job. He shouldn’t sit and collect unemployment. It’s much harder to be hired after being unemployed. </p>
<p>I know how bad it sucks to work full time and go to school. Hating it adds so much more stress that’s unnecessary. He should look for another job with more reasonable hours.</p>
<p>I always recommend work as hard and well as you can in your job to be a valuable employee. If you feel that you must move on, then look for another job. I don’t particularly like the idea of trying to get fired as you aren’t doing the job that you agreed to do when you were hired.</p>
<p>If he’s still in school, then I don’t think it’s a problem not to get another job. Future employers will see that school was his job. Kids change jobs or stop working while in school all the time.</p>
<p>He should not, however, seek to get fired if he doesn’t need the immediate unemployment to live on. While they will understand his not getting another job immediately, they will not be as understanding about someone being fired.</p>
<p>It is much more useful in future employment to leave one’s current employment on good terms.</p>
He might be conflating “getting fired” with “getting laid off.” </p>
<p>To get fired, he’d have to quit or perform so poorly they’d want him gone, or initiate a confrontation that ended in someone saying, “you’re fired.” </p>
<p>Being “laid off” or “downsized” is different. It could mean there’s not enough work to go around to enough employees, or production is down. </p>
<p>Does anyone know the details about how unemployment views those two different situations? My impression has always been you don’t collect if you’re “fired” in the first way.</p>
<p>I strongly agree with Thumper1 that a good recommendation after many years is very valuable for his next and future job applications. He shouldn’t be shortsighted.</p>
<p>I don’t blame him for being angry and hurt. But he should definitely not try to get fired. He has a great work history going within the one company. That will help him when he applies for career type jobs when he graduates college. It will show a work commitment, plus he may need the reference that it could provide. My son needed two work references for the job he has in his field. Although he had worked for 4 places in the past, he no longer had contact information for one of them. And he couldn’t be sure the other three would respond. He went back to his summer job in high school for a reference in order to make sure he had enough. (The other two did come through, though). Your son has 3 years with one company and that reference could be very valuable.</p>
<p>We had a friend who was fired from a retail store job. He had an extremely difficult time getting another job because all of the applications he was completing asked if he had ever been fired from a job. Maybe he could have lied, but that can lead to trouble down the road as well if they find out you lied on the application.</p>
<p>Please encourage him to either reduce his hours or get another job or just resign to concentrate on his school work. But he needs to do it the proper way in case he needs that reference in the future.</p>
<p>Unless they are doing a big layoff, most employers around here will fight paying unemployment if someone has been fired. They may not win, but they will fight. (I don’t think every firing is eligible for unemployment.)</p>
<p>If the business needs to layoff people, he could certainly volunteer. I know people who have done this.</p>
<p>He probably intends to ask them to lay him off. It is not to their benefit to do that, and they appear to be very corporate, so I don’t see why they would just to be nice. But if they do, there’s nothing shameful in taking unemployment insurance. You pay into the plan when you work, so it is your right to benefit from the program if you are laid off. He should; however, make an honest effort to find another job while on unemployment.</p>
<p>Unemployment is an insurance fund - the more people use it, the higher the premium rates that the states will have to charge employers to fund it.</p>
<p>As a parent, it is MY job to point out what a terrible idea planning to get fired is…1st, very unethical,you know it,i know it, he knows it,my dog knows it…2nd, as others stated, he might need a reference from them at some point…3rd, he has been apparently been employed there for awhile, so he has a history of being a very good employee, and the change of work ethic would be very obvious…</p>
<p>BCEagle, that is why I don’t like him doing it. </p>
<p>qdogpa, I HAVE told him it is a bad idea. </p>
<p>I have told him it is better to quit than be fired. He is just so fed up and figures it would be nice to be one of the ones who gets to collect.</p>
<p>I will remind him that they can fight it…so if they fight it and win then he is just out. If they fight it and lose then he will likely have a penalthy.</p>
<p>While talking to a friend I mentioned that he had sort of been forced into the 40 hours that was too much of a strain on him. I had wondered when it happened if he could collect partial unemployment for being cut from 25-30 hours down to 10 (if had not chosen full-time). That sort of made me think that maybe he does have a valid claim if gets fired. He would say he had been forced to work too many hours because the other option was too few.</p>
<p>I still don’t want him fired and will remind him again and again that he needs the references (I have already said it many times.) I didn’t realize some job apps ask if you’ve ever been fired and will mention that to him.</p>
<p>I did suggest he ask for unpaid vacaction of leave of absence. Cutting the hours doesn’t seem to be an option. They seem to be rather rigid. He had to go through 3 interviews way back when he first applied there as a seasonal employee. He mentioned how hard it might be to get them to put him back to full time if he goes part-time now. Maybe part-time would be the answer for now though.</p>
<p>I realize most people don’t care about company’s, but I’ll fill you in. It is the company’s that pay unemployment, not the state. We get taxed a percent of our payroll to go into our state unemployment fund. Right now my state is broke and our unemployment tax is 9.5% of every dollar paid in payroll! And I haven’t had anyone able to collect against me in many years. </p>
<p>Also, one thing I know is that people tend to come in and out of your life in ways you may never expect. Burning bridges is always a bad idea. </p>
<p>Every state is different, but in my state you can’t receive if you quit, had gross misconduct or didn’t follow specific guidelines agreed to by the company. For instance, documented chronic poor attendance will get you denied. </p>
<p>We’re a society moving towards wanting something for nothing. I urge him to not feel like he’s “owed” anything.</p>
<p>I’ve owned a few businesses and have had to pay (or rather the company had to pay) unemployment insurance taxes so there’s where you actually see the money going out. The percentages that we had to pay were nowhere near 9.5% though - so your state must be really hurting.</p>
<p>I also invest and trade many companies and earnings do matter to me and unemployment insurance is a hit against the bottom line. You may feel that you’re getting back at the company because they aren’t treating you well but you’re actually hurting all of the companies in your state, and, to some extent, the employees of those companies.</p>
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<p>The problem with free stuff is that it is so expensive.</p>
<p>BC - when we started years ago I think our rates were under 2%. Every year it keeps going up a percent. I think what really happens is that the state raids the funds for other things and sees it as an easy target. Our tax rate in a different state where we have employees is 1.2%! And that state is technically poorer than our home state.</p>
<p>Every state will require that your son be actively looking for work if he is collecting unemployment. He may have to attend workshops, career fairs, etc. At least in our states, benefits no longer come without strings attached.</p>
<p>He needs to start looking for another job. It is easier to get a job when you have a job, unless he just wants to not work for a while. Again, I don’t think getting fired (which is different than being laid off) will get him unemployment benefits.</p>