by Annonymous
I was at work and it was at a time where I was waiting to receive work and had some downtime. I don’t know why i did it, but I went onto a x-rated website for a few minutes. It was tracked and I was later confronted a couple weeks later. I was honest about it and accepted responsibility, but I was asked to resign or be terminated and I chose to resign. they were good about it, but that was the final decision. I had done nothing else wrong and had done everything I was asked and done it well. There was no other issue other than that one time deal. I was denied unemployment by statute section 268.095 and 268.047.
Hi Annonymous,
I’ve moved your submission to “unemployment appeals because you have already been denied benefits per Minnesota statute 268.095 specifically sub d – 6 which is the statute governing misconduct. 268.047 has to do with the employer’s chargeability.
As discussed many times on this website, even though you resigned, what you did was quit in lieu of discharge and for unemployment purposes it is considered a discharge.
So if you decide to appeal you need to show that either your act should not be considered misconduct or the employer failed to follow their own policy as far as progressive disciplines for your type of misconduct or maybe show the employer did not have a policy to address your act.
Minnesota says this is misconduct:
Subd. 6.Employment misconduct defined.
(a) Employment misconduct means any intentional, negligent, or indifferent conduct, on the job or off the job (1) that displays clearly a serious violation of the standards of behavior the employer has the right to reasonably expect of the employee, or (2) that displays clearly a substantial lack of concern for the employment.
I don’t really understand why an employee would do this. We should all know by now that an employers ability to track our internet usage is pretty much SOP. If we are on the clock a reasonable person should know they are not being paid to pass time accessing x-rated websites…it’s common sense.
But this is not to say individuals do not get unemployment for being fired for looking at porn.
I remember a Massachusetts case where a very well paid exec got unemployment benefits.
The employer submitted hundreds of screen shots of where the gentleman spent the bulk of his day.
The claimant submitted medical documentation that he was suffering from a sexual addiction obtained after his discharge.
I do realize you said it was a one time error in judgment, but if you appeal, even though it’s up to the employer to sustain their burden…you will need to be the one to show the judge why you should be allowed unemployment by showing that it was not harmful to the employers interests.
Be sure to check out the topic resources after you get to 268.095