Can I collect unemployment if I have been fired for not doing my side work?

by Angela

(Georgia)

I work as a waitress and at night my job is to vacuum the floors. The vacuum is a poor piece of machinery and it doesn’t work properly. I stayed at work after close for an hour vacuuming and the next day I got written up because the manager said the floor looked like I didn’t vacuum at all. I have another manager who stayed with me and witnessed me vacuum for an hour.

Both managers responsible for making the schedule have relationships with two servers who work directly beneath them. The managers make the schedule which reflects blatant favoritism to these two servers. These two servers also get away with things that other servers have been fired for.

After being terminated, I found out that the manager who fired me let another server off the hook for doing a bad job vacuuming the floors. I have a witness who will testify that she said the vacuum is junk and that this was the same problem I had and was terminated for.

I think I was fired so the managers who are dating/relationships with their employee’s can keep their job without me ratting them out for breaking company policy about no dating.

Hi Angela,

Well I certainly think you should try .. especially if you have a witness willing to testify that the employer fired you for a poor job which is directly related to the ill-working machinery.

I’m curious about the “side job” thing. How were you paid for this?

As far as the fraternization thing .. had you threatened these managers that you were going to tell?

Comments for Can I collect unemployment if I have been fired for not doing my side work?

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Just one write up

by: Angela

Nope, just one write up and the next time she fired me.

And what is the progressive discipline policy?

My answer .. Inadequate equipment, backed up by a statement and or testimony from the other manager willing to help.

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Good advice

by: Angela

I was written up once for doing a poor job on the floors with the broken vacuum. Only one write up and I signed it because I thought it would reflect badly if I did not sign it. ( Plus I know they can fire me for not signing it ) They cut my shifts in half and scheduled me to only work a couple of night shifts that required me to vacuum.

A week after I was fired, someone else got in trouble for doing a poor job on the floors. They were not written up or fired for it. Should I have a manager who is not breaking the fraternizing policy write a statement because she witnessed this and told me about this over the phone?

You need to stay focused on what happened to you. If someone else wasn’t written up for the same thing “while” you were employed .. then you could say that there was no uniformity in discipline, but given that you no longer work there …

Yes, have a manager write a statement .. preferably including the fact that no matter who vacumns .. the results are the same.

Still need to know if there is a progressive discipline policy.

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clerification

by: Angela

“side job” is just a term for my responsibilities like cleaning tables, closing down soda fountain and other responsibilities other than running food to tables and drink refills.

I have two willing witnesses that will testify on my behalf and one is a manager other than the two that make the schedule. The relationships between the two managers and the two servers is open and everyone knows about both couples. The owner just doesn’t care I suppose.

I have confronted the higher ranking floor manager about the relationships and blatant favoritism, but she just started avoiding me at work. She is one manager who is dating a server.

In 2008 There was also a personal ad posted stating my name and work place location, this ad was placed impersonating me ( it was my ex-husband and it had a nude pic of me on the ad ) and asking men to meet me at work for potential sex. The owner knew about this ad before I found it at least four days later ( I have reason to suspect there were previous ads that I was not aware of ) and instead of confronting me about it, he avoided me and asked other employee’s questions like, “Is Angela ok?” “Does she still work here?” My life was in potential danger! Men were calling the place looking for me, asking if I was working. The owner was forwarded through email a copy of the ad and did not let me know anything. I called him to ask him what was going on and he never answered the phone or talked to me. I had to corner him at work before he would say anything about the email/ad!

A friend/co-worker called me to tell me I was getting all these back to back calls and that’s how I found out. This place was an awful place to work but I stayed as long as I could.

Hi Angela,

Although the “personal ad” situation is reprehensible .. I’m don’t see how it is relevant to what you were fired for in 2009.

Not vacumning the floor properly is what you said you were terminated for .. correct?

Narrow your focus to the reason you were fired.

How many times were you warned? In your original post you said that you were written up, but in the next paragraph you said you were terminated.

This is what you should be clarifying.

One way an employee can talk themself right out of benefits is by cluttering things up.

You should first outline the events that led to your discharge. If the employer fired you for not cleaning the floor well enough .. the state will be wanting to see the employer’s corrective actions or write-ups are. They will want to know what the progressive discipline policy is .. because failure to properly vacumn due to poor working equipment provided by the employer .. should not be too hard to prove that “good cause” for termination did not exist ..