I have to quit my job or be fired because I did not perform my job to the required ablilty as a police officer.

by melissa
(stone mountain, ga, dekalb)

I was on a fto program as a dekalb county police officer. I was incompetent to the job and was not able to fulfill the job performance, so I was asked to resign or get fired. I did not want to get fired, because I plan on going to a different agency. Will I qualify to receive unemployment benefits?


Hi Melissa,

This is called a quit in lieu of discharge. You also might have heard it called "constructively discharged. This type of separation from a job is viewed as a discharge and it is the employer who has the burden to show it was for good cause, because you had no choice or ability to keep the job, therefore you were not the moving party.

Generally speaking, a discharge for performance issues is not considered misconduct if the performance issues were cause by an "inability" to attain the expected standards

This makes sense if you remember that an employer must prove that the reason they fired you was for "misconduct". The word misconduct implies you had a choice or should have know better.

So although I cannot give you a clearer understanding about your unique situation, it shouldn't be to hard to apply this very basic explanation to your circumstances.

But I do have two questions .. FTO stands for Field Training Officer Program? You were receiving a salary .. correct?