by D
(Tacoma, Washington)
I live in Washington state. I worked as a delivery driver for the past 2 and a half months. For the 3 years prior to that I did maintenance repair work (with a week and a half between jobs).
My first question:
I believe Washington requires 680 hours of employment to qualify… I quit my maintenance job to take the delivery job and was then fired from the driving position. Do I need to have worked at the DELIVERY job for 680 hours? Or will my maintenance job I quit count towards my 680 hours? Will QUITTING my maintenance job cause me to be denied benefits?
My main question:
I was fired today and told by management it was because I, “appear unhappy and have been vocal about this lately.(We) don’t want you here if you’re unhappy. We want people who are enthusiastic about this job.” Do you think I will qualify for benefits?
I have no reason to believe right now they will try to fight me on this, but I wonder if they do, would these reasons disqualify me…:
I was called in twice by people complaining about my driving. I was talked to by my manager about these instances, but was given no written warning and no real verbal warning either. No, “this can’t happen again” or “if this happens again we may have to let you go” or anything of that nature. I was simply informed someone called in.
I was 10 minutes late or so a few times, but was given no verbal or written warning. I was not talked to in any way about this at all. Many employee’s were constantly late and no one was ever punished for it. The start time seemed to be more of an “approximate” start time in my opinion.
I was sick yesterday and called in to work for the first and only time. A week prior to that after working well past my regular shift and making all my deliveries, I had to to tell them I couldn’t do an extra delivery for them because I had a dentist appointment that evening.
At the time of my firing, none of these things were brought up. When I specifically asked if appearing unhappy was the only reason I was being fired, I was told yes.
In summary; do I qualify? If this goes to a hearing and any (or all) of the preceding issues are brought up, would they disqualify me?
Hi,
You will monetarily qualify so don’t worry about that.
Appearing unhappy is not misconduct in and of itself .. unless your unhappiness is the cause for doing something stupid.
If “appearing unhappy” were misconduct Abe Lincoln or anyone with droopy feature could be fired for that alone.
If the employer doesn’t fight your benefits .. the voluntary quit .. could be a problem .. but I’m not so sure about this in WA .. the USDOL has a footnote that says it can be good cause if the new job is covered by unemployment.
If it does become a quit without good cause, it will come with a voluntary quit disqualification .. which in WA State is 7 weeks time and earnings in bona fide work of 7 x WBA until you can requalify.
So, I think .. if you have a stumbling block .. to getting benefits .. it will be the job you were fired from .. because .. in my experience .. all employers I dealt with .. fought unemployment benefits .. regardless of what they tell an employee they are firing.