I was fired from work and I need unemployment while attending school full-time.

by Kate
(Baltimore)

I was fired from work 2 weeks after I started school. I was fired because I complained about sexual harassment from another manager. I then started school and now I don't know if I can receive benefits. I am fulltime and I want to keep it that way and I want to get very good grades and do well.

I also was told by my own manager that I couldn't work in their department and attend school, then they got rid of me. They are the reason I am unemployed and they tried to discourage me from attending school and now they are trying to take away my rights to receive unemployment. This is not fair.


Hi Kate,

I need you to explain a couple of things and that would be your opening.

You said you were fired two weeks AFTER starting school because you lodged a complaint for sexual harassment.

Then you said "I then started school". I thought you had already started school.

Why don't you tell me what the employer told you their reason for termination was .. please. It's not helpful to offer your suppositions without knowing what they told you. And it's just a guess, but I'll bet it wasn't .. "you're fired because you complained about being sexually harassed."

Then I'll discuss your ability to collect unemployment while attending school full-time and I'm assuming you mean college. Let me know if I'm wrong.

Oh and by the way, if you could expand just a bit on your last paragraph.

Chris

Addition:

Kate never came back and answered any of my questions, but if she had .. I would have told her that attending college full-time is a severe restriction on your availability for work .. and until a state changes their statutes to reflect what President Obama has ENCOURAGED states to do .. you cannot use unemployment benefits to subsidize attendance at school.

Also, an employer can tell you that you can't work for them and play baseball on the weekends if they want to .. BUT if an employer said that only females who play baseball on the weekends couldn't work for them .. that's another matter.

Focus on the unemployment issue in order .. even if Kate was fired in retaliation for filing an EEOC complaint prior to getting fired .. she has to prove that retaliation was the cause .. not misconduct.

Then to collect any unemployment benefits entitled to .. you have to remain eligible for benefits.