Can I quit and be able to collect unemployment in NJ

by Jennifer

(NJ)

I work for a small business (marina) for 4 years. I have never been in trouble and I work every weekend and holiday. I work for a husband and wife team.
In the recent month my father became ill. I was given permission from the husband to leave work on a sat. at noon to be with my dad who was rushed to the hospital the night before. My female boss was not in. I came back to work on Sunday and did my job no problems, we are closed on Mondays, so Tuesday came and I came to work I noticed the female boss was I guess you could say ignoring me not just for that day but the whole week, I just left it alone ( she can get moody and we all learned to let it be), Friday is my day off I had to take my dad for outpatient surgery, things did not go well and he was admitted. Saturday I arrived at work at 9 and about 9:10 my sister called saying we had to go dad was to have surgery again and the Dr. wants us there, once again the male boss was like ” go ” so I left, came to work on Sunday and the day was fine, well on Monday ( my day off) I get an email/text from the female boss that it does not sit well with her that I took Saturday off and that I should take the rest of the week off w/o pay to deal with my issues!!! and if I need anything I should not sidestep her and go thru her husband. On Tues I tried to come to work to talk to her, she threw a fit and slammed her fist down and got in my face and went bonkers, I was quite shocked and I have to admit I did yell back at that point and I left. That same day I get a call from another employee saying that the male boss came to him and said DYFS was at his house and that they told him I had called…I was like WHAT!!! so that night I wrote an email to the female boss explaining things to her since she will not talk to me, I was nice and I did not write anything bad and was telling her where I stand and how I l like my job and cannot understand why I am being treated this way, all I did was take a day and a half off to be with my Father who was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer, and I did write that her husband accused me off calling DYFS on the family ( I have to say I would never, never do such a thing) well I never even got a response back from that letter/email. That was a month ago, and since then I come to work still but no one will talk to me answer my ?’s and avoid me at all costs, I tried confronting her about the DYFS issue she yelled at me and said ” go ask him”! I have heard rumors from customers that they are indeed telling people I did this to their family but UI cannot get them to admit it, since they ignore me, and just the other day I sent her another email asking, who do I go to for help when the current management is ignoring/avoiding me, because I had a recent customer yelling and screaming at me about our policies and at one point was threatening me. I still got no response from her. I guess they don’t care about my safety either. I tried talking, emailing and nothing is working and I have to say I am quite stressed out by it, I have to deal with this job and my father’s illness. I want to quit but am scared I won’t be able to collect, Whew this is a long story, Sorry

Thanks
Jennifer

Hi Jennifer,

I don’t know. Yours is the type of situation that just makes me want to ask more questions.

First, I don’t know what DYFS is. And secondly, If you want to quit you will have to be able to sustain that it was attributable to the work and that you made attempts to preserve the employment.

Quite frankly, the only reason I think you have not been fired is because they know they’d lose. Ignoring you is very possibly their solution to “force you to quit” because like almost everyone else on the planet .. they believe the myth that it’s not possible to quit and get unemployment.

I strongly commend you for using email to communicate your efforts (very usable at a hearing). But to be safe I would make one last effort to allow the DIVA to come to HER senses and start acting like a good little reasonable employer who understands the responsibility of keeping employees safe in the workplace and showing an interest when an employee reports a threatening act by one of HER customers.

Reiterate the events that have led to the employer’s “Non-communication” and explain that this is unacceptable and you expect to be treated “equally” and “legally” which includes the cessation of repeating “unfounded rumors” to make you look bad.

I’ve assumed you filed for unemployment the week you were sent home as punishment for taking off to be with your father .. which by the way is quite acceptable to do .. considering you were given permission by the other half of this team.