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For the were you warned, you can say, "I was never warned from about the time I was switched from hourly to salaried." Not the precise truth, but not a lie either. Let the employer prove that your warning was for working overtime as a salaried employee, and that it was to stay in effect after your switch from hourly to salaried.
I was never a hourly employee. I've always been a salaried employee but a year ago I was told my status has changed to a exempt employee and still salaried. Also if I was asked regarding why I left a few minutes early on 11/22/13, the owner verbally agreed with our office that no one is to be in the office on their own and that he was ok with me leaving at the same time with the receptionist on fridays but when I reminded him of that conversation on the day they fired me, the owner said I don't recall having that conversation. How should I response if I'm asked about that?
You're overthinking it. If you were fired because of unauthorized overtime, then leaving early, one time is not relevant. Just wait until the call. Try to say as little as possible because you don't want to lock yourself into a story. You have to let the employer make their allegations, try to prove them, and wait and see if it rises to the level of misconduct.
You don't do the employer's job by admitting to stuff. If you are asked specifically about leaving early on that day, you can say, "that was not stated as a reason for my termination."
I received a formal letter in the mail from the owner and the reason for termination on it is involuntary termination. Totally different than what I was told verbally on the day of firing.
I received a formal letter in the mail from the owner and the reason for termination on it is involuntary termination. Totally different than what I was told verbally on the day of firing.
Involuntary termination is another way of saying you were fired by your employer. Which is what you were told. You were fired. The fact that the rules violation wasn't mentioned in that letter doesn't mean there wasn't one.
So did I shot myself in the foot by stating i was terminated due to failure to get approval for overtime on my application instead of involuntary termination?
No, you didn't shoot yourself in the foot, but you did more than you were required to do, and when you're discharged, you try to confine yourself to the smallest set of facts possible so that you can avoid going to an appeal hearing. You might very well get a good adjudicator that does it right. I don't think what you did was misconduct. I don't think an ALJ would think it is misconduct, but there are deputies that don't get it.
As an example, poor performance is not misconduct, but on here we've read decisions that said, "the employer had a rule as to your production standards. You knew about the rules. You were warned that if your performance doesn't improve that you would be terminated. Since you failed to improve your performance, you are disqualified from benefits." The claimant, of course, won on appeal, but that was wasted time for no good reason other than the claimant had a bad adjudicator, might have said too much, or should have not raised any issues unnecessarily.
Also, UI is about what can be proved. Since you were verbally told a reason, and your written reason conflicts and it's nondisqualifying reason, that is the better thing to have put on your application because you can prove from the letter it was for an involuntary termination, and no reason was given.
Now that doesn't mean the employer can't raise a reason, but not all employers care if you get UI benefits. Some feel so terrible about firing you they are fine with you getting benefits, and you don't want to be the one to cause problems for yourself because it was your own words that disqualified you.
My friend was fired with no reason given. He just felt compelled to go into detail about his tardiness problem and how he just wasn't given enough time to improve. He was denied, and his employer had said nothing about the tardies. He was denied because he tattled on himself.
The message I keep trying to get out there is don't be like him. Let the employer make their case, and if you get denied, at least your own admissions can't be used against you because there won't be any, and hopefully, you can poke enough holes in the employer's version to still get benefits even if you are guilty as sin.
Anecdotally, I think that they more often talk to you first, and then your employer. So many people seem to sufficiently incriminate themselves why bother talking to the employer first. The adjudicator can say to the employer after talking to the employee that so and so says that they worked unauthorized overtime, and then just lead the employer down the path to say everything necessary to deny benefits. When the claimant does it right, the adjudicator is forced to call and say, "so why did you let this person go. . ." The employer might come back and say, "don't have time to talk about it right now. . .," or "it was for misconduct" as in making a conclusion with nothing to support it. At that point, by default you get benefits because there is zero evidence of misconduct.
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