by Irene
(Ventura, California)
My son’s new boss was verbally abusive yelling at my son in an angry way. This new boss made the work environment so stressful my son walked off the job. We filed a claim stating my son quit under duress because the emotional abuse was not sustainable. What do we need to do to prepare for the hearing?
Hi Irene,
Since you’re in California I’m suggesting you start by reading the California Unemployment Insurance Benefits Determination Guide. (UIBDG)
If you had only read about the burden to prove good cause, you should understand why walking off a job isn’t the correct thing to do, even if a boss is a yeller, because your son now has to prove that walking off is proof the boss actually yelled and that whatever was yelled rises to a sufficient level to meet the burden.
Employees are not automatically victims without any control over what happens to them at work, including how a verbally abusive boss might make them feel.
Unemployment hearing decision often make reference to something called the reasonable person standard, which asks the question, what would another reasonable person under similar circumstances.
Generally, to meet the part of the voluntary quit burden that requires a person to first make .. even exhaust efforts to preserve the job, it’s walking off should be replaced with escalating a grievance about how one is being treated ..per an employer’s appropriate policy.
Good cause begins with using common sense, especially if the employer lacks any rules, or policies and documenting to assure you have proof you made the employer aware of the problem.
The purpose of documenting is to create proof of cause and proof of when continuing effort to preserve the employment become futile, so the employer cannot sidestep, hide from, or recall what was wrong in the first plasce that eventually led a subordinate employee to decide when correcting and preserving a job really has become futile to that other reasonable person who may of dealt with the situation more appropriately than to just walk off the job ..