Worried I may not be eligible for UC benefits. Can someone read my story and give feedback? (Penn: home)

[iconoclast12]

I live in Pennsylvania. I was hired to do IT Support work for a financial adviser company back in August of 2017. Near the end of December 2017, I was given a 6 month review.. My review was above average and there were only minor criticisms about my work performance, mostly attention to detail. About two weeks later, my supervisor sat down with me and pointed out to remind me that I couldn't wear jeans with scuffs and/or holes in them (first time warning), that I needed to be on-time or early more often (I had been running 2-3 minutes late at times) and that I cannot ask people for their passwords, since I had asked a few people to write down their passwords for me so that I could work on their computers while they were away, since without that or them being there, I would not have been able to do my assigned work. After he told me about this, I never asked anyone for their passwords again and stopped wearing the jeans, and also began showing up on-time.. I did not sign anything when he said this, it was a verbal conversation between me and my supervisor.. There were no issues that I was made aware of after this conversation about my performance or otherwise. Fast forward to May 25th, 2018. I'm pulled into the office first thing in the morning and it was my supervisor and one of the HR people.. He said "we have been talking and we have decided to let you go". I asked for what reason.. He said because I'm missing too many details. I asked for some examples and feedback.. The examples that he gave me were that I missed a few computers while performing maintenance and that I had passwords stored in my web browser when I shouldn't have, and those were the examples he gave me. I then signed a piece of paper that the HR person gave me and left. The HR person did not give me a copy of the paper I signed and at the time, being that I was upset and wanted to leave, I did not read it nor ask for a copy. When I got home I immediately filed for UC benefits. Later that day I received a call from a UC employee who had asked me a few questions about my separation. I told them exactly what was said at my termination and told them it seemed to be due to performance issues.

Just earlier today, the UC office called me, and the employee who was reviewing my case asked me a few questions stating that they "needed more info". They asked me if I was told about company policy when I began working there, and I said yes. They asked if I had been warned multiple times about any issues, and I only said that myself and my supervisor had one talk about it months ago, and that was it.

A few weeks before I was fired, my supervisor discovered that I had a few passwords stored in my google chrome browser. Browser stored passwords is a company policy violation, however I was completely unaware that I had any passwords stored in my browser, as it was something I did not think about on a regular basis nor did I bother to ever check this.

These passwords could have been stored there from my first few weeks of starting the job, and I had no idea they were there.. Google Chrome is setup to automatically save any passwords you enter into browser fields and I never thought twice about this. It's just not something that ever crossed my mind.

Judging from what the UC employee said on the phone and the questions they asked me, it leads me to believe that my former employer is trying to say I violated company policy by having passwords stored in my web browser..

Does a situation like this disqualify me from receiving benefits?

[Marie Joseph]

UC benefits in Pennsylvania are generally only denied under two conditions: failing a drug screen mandated by the employer or in cases of 'willful misconduct'.

Since your company did not document the warning you were given regarding being on time, the jeans, and the writing down of the passwords--it works in your favor. Repeated warnings and continued violations can be construed as 'willful'.

Chrome does automatically save passwords and it is an annoying feature of it IMO since my job requires using it to visit secure sites such as background checking sites. I definitely do not want it to save my password. Since you were not aware that Chrome was saving the passwords on its own, it does not sound like you intentionally violated the policy.

The company should have offered you a copy of what you signed at your separation but that is over with now.

The best thing to do at this point is to truthfully answer any additional information queries from the UC office.

If you are denied benefits, file an appeal right away.

This kind of situation doesn't necessarily preclude you from getting UC. The burden now is on the employer to prove that you were aware of the rules and deliberately violated them. It's going to be pretty hard for them to do with no documentation of the prior discussion.

Also important--is there documentation from when you hired in where you signed some kind of acknowledgement page from an employee handbook that had rules in it?