being moved into a position you are not qualified for, you did not apply for, and were unable to succeed at.

by jmw

(Cleveland, OH)

I was hired as a technical writer by an insurance company in Ohio. After one year the company reorganized and I was put in a Problem analyst role. When asked if I thought I could do the job, my question was “what is the job?”

At the time they couldn’t tell me what my daily job duties would be, and they couldn’t give me a job description, because it was a new position they were creating.

They told me there was no position available for a technical writer, so I accepted the position and said I would try.

I worked very hard to understand how to do the job. Other people in a similar role had extensive experience in IT and incident management. I had to learn data analysis, I took a training seminar and worked at home to come up to speed.

Within six months I was really struggling. I had frequent discussions with my manager about how the job was not in my area of expertise. My manager agreed and began contacting other departments to see if a technical writer position would be available. Nothing came up, the only technical writer work was being given to contractors and temporary employees.

I continued to struggle. I was repeatedly reprimanded for not performing well. However nowhere was it documented on what tasks needed to be performed, or how to do those tasks. I relied on asking fellow employees. More often than not, I was reprimanded for things that I was completely unaware were “wrong”, until my manager criticized for them.

I was told “name” insurance company can’t afford to carry people who are a bad fit for the job. I was a bad fit, I knew it and the manager knew it. Every manager I had will say that when I am given a technical writing task, I do excellent work. I looked for job posts and I pleaded with the manager to find another position for me.

In my last weekly manager conference I walked into his office and he had the paperwork to start the warning process for poor performance and eventual termination. He had been working with his manager and the HR representative to prepare for going down that path.

I was devastated. I was demoralized, and I realized that I was on the road to being fired. When an employee is in the performance warning stage, they are no longer able to apply for other positions in the company and they are not eligible for rehire.

I resigned. I could not make up for the lack of a few years of incident management experience in a few months. In my exit interview I clearly stated that I lacked the background and experience to perform the job, so it is documented.

However, I did not document some of these things because it never occurred to me that I would be able to apply for unemployment.

Most of the conversations with the manager were in private, so I can’t prove what he said.

I have appealed denial of benefits on the grounds that the employer failed to provide training to do the job. Also, I was placed in the position, it was not the job I was hired to do, and I did not have prior training or experience to do the job.

I am still appealing and keeping my fingers crossed.

Hi jmw,

I think you need to focus on the fact that what you were hired for disappeared as an option and that the new position was not “suitable work”.

Your basic problem with this argument is that you kept at it for 6 months.

So maybe the combination of no prior training or experience, the employer’s refusal to provide training might help you prove that the “new position” was unsuitable work for you.

I ….. don’t know .. I think I’ll cross my fingers for you .. maybe even my toes.

Irregardless of my hesitancy .. it never ever hurts to at least try .. an unemployment hearing can always have potential to be a learning experience.

Chris