Resigned After New Owners Took Over

(Washington Unemployment Benefits)

I just looked on line at my claim and it says disqaulified and a letter will be sent out!…now I resigned from my job due to new owners.

I came into work (bookkeeper) and there were new owners stating they owned the company and would like the keys to the office and all the passwords to the computer!

I am the only one with the keys and passwords. I gave them my keys which I really should not have but not the passwords.

Then I sat there for a little bit could not get a hold of my owners, so i said I was taking a break.

I left, went down the road and called them and told them I needed to get a hold of my boss and I hoped he understood that giving the passwords to the computer holds all the banking and all the records of the company and the check writer!

Then I went home and still could not get a hold of my boss. Another employee there resigned and called me and asked if I was going to because they were going to fire me anyway after they got all the info they needed!

I thought about it..and they sure didn’t welcome me with open arms so I resigned that day.

To this day i still have not received a call from the old owners and now WA unemployment has disqualified me after I’ve waited for 2months…does this sound right…? it does not to me!

Answer For: Resigned After New Owners Took Over

If you told the State of Washington the same thing you told me .. then yes, I’d say it does sound right.

Mainly, because the way you have presented everything that happened that day sounds “out there”.

It sounds like you had no idea the company you worked for had been sold.

It sounds like you did reach the old owners on the phone when you left for that break. However, you didn’t tell me what the conversation consisted of.

It sounds like you would have only been satisfied if you had gotten hold of your boss, which I’m not sure if that person was an employee or the old owner .. and I’m wondering if an employee or an owner why that person wasn’t there to smooth the transition if this was going to be a shock to the people working that day.

And by your own admission, you quit because you assumed you would be fired based upon a phone call from another co-worker.

And it also sounds like you weren’t too welcoming yourself to the new owners .. it sound more like you were treating them as possible burglars.

Considering that when you came in that morning they asked for your keys and your passwords .. I’m wondering why you didn’t just profess your surprise that the business had been sold .. ask if they could either produce something to prove they were now your employer or ask that they have your former employer confirm this fact for you before you handed the keys and the passwords over to them. Asking for your keys and passwords may alone be enough to lead a person to believe they were actually fired .. so I wonder .. why didn’t you ask them what their intentions were about your future employment as well?

It would have been a reasonable reaction of an employee charged with the responsibility of overseeing the funds of a company as a bookkeeper to try to get verification of the business being sold.

I can read that you’re quite upset about this, and you may believe that you told me everything that needs to be known for me to agree that none of this makes sense that you were denied benefits. However, I think you may have helped to set this up by not being clear with the department.

As I keep repeating like an old record .. you have to remove your emotions and be as objective as possible if you plan on trying to get unemployment benefits because all they want is a clear picture of what happened to end the employment, so they can make a determination based upon the information available to them.

If you disagree .. then appeal.

And consider talking to a hearing rep to help you see clearly what’s weak about your story or, if they can see any strength in your burden of proof and the possibility of you winning an appeal. If they don’t, you can always try winning it alone .. or withdraw the appeal.

But first, you have to be able to see what details might be important .. or accept that you handled the situation like you were upset, instead of like you knew that the unemployment department would lay the weight of proving you had good cause .. instead of focusing on the fact that just by asking for the keys and the passwords that day .. the employer’s intent to discharge you may have been very clear to you.