quit job, but employer had unfair work practices

by John

(Michigan)

I quit my job as a department manager at a supermarket chain. I accepted this transfer to a new store because it was a department that was in in disarray. To make a long story short I fixed the department completely. However once it was fixed I was basically doing all he work myself. It takes about 160 labor hours to run the department and I was doing about 80% of all the work. The people that were working for me were basically just showing up and collecting a paycheck. I constantly told the managers above me that I needed some competant people and that it was too much to handle on my own but they never addressed the concern in 4+ months working there. Not to mention there was several instances where they asked me to work off the clock to get the job done. Can I still collect unemployment?

Hi John,

Whether you get unemployment is dependent on whether you can prove that your reason for quitting would make any other “reasonable person” quit their job and of course proving good cause is done by allowing the opportunity to “correct” the problem.

In your case .. The “problem” was basically, your complaint about the quality of the people you managed and managing people was your job.

The only problem that I think might be attributable to the employer is “working off the clock” and possibly the employer’s refusal to allow you to progress through the “progressive discipline policy” that manager are usually able to do when it comes to dealing with subordinates’ performance????

Sometimes good cause to quit is all a matter of perspective and if you want to be able to get benefits for quitting .. the reasonable person standard used to judge it, is your basic problem.

Comments for quit job, but employer had unfair work practices

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May 09, 2010
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unfair treatment

by: John

I was a union employee and my subordinates were as well, so it is more my job to give direction. I did not seek the unions advice at all. It was the store managers job to follow through with discipline when tasks were not getting completed. I told the managers on several occasions that the employees were not getting much done when they would work. Regardless the job still needed to get done and my health and relationship with my family was deteriorating afte 4 months of this so I quit. It was too much to do by myself. Essentially they would just make the one person most responsible for the departments success (me) to fix everything and stay after to do it.

Hi John,

It seems that since you were union .. that you should have sought help from the union.

It is interesting that now you mention the toll your job was taking on your health and family .. that alone isn’t necessarily good cause unless you try to preserve the employment first .. and given that most unions have a specified grievance procedure .. that is where you should have started because if anyone wants unemployment benefits when they quit .. all that is necessary to sustain good cause for quitting .. is your job.