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If you are now 'fired', you are eligible for unemployment. If you have any time gap between now and your new job, sign up. If they want to fight it, it will take some of their time and money and you may have the opportunity to discuss their business practices with an unemployment commission. Second, employers will say if you were terminated or left voluntarily and if you are eligible for rehire. They may volunteer more, but generally will not to avoid any liability. This particular company sounds poor, so who knows what they will do.
I work in HR for a small business, so I have experience in this. YMMV.
None of this matters. If the company is run by a jerk, they can still do jerk things. You can give 2-week notice, they can take you to lunch and kiss you on the way out the door, and STILL say you were terminated and tell HR you are not available for re-hire. All without your knowledge too.
At least the OP has a clue that the company tried to screw him which is why the OP needs to talk with an employment attorney now.
and what do you expect this employment attorney to do?
Pick a fight over a non-legally binding letter about a termination that as a fully functioning adult they willingly signed. This person has not been damaged in anyway.
and I will say this again, this person never resigned. They provided a letter of notice to resign on a certain date. At the time of termination they were still an employee and subject to termination. He/She can talk to all the lawyers they want, won't do a thing.
I wouldn't have signed anything. I would have gathered my belongings and enjoyed my week's vacation. Probably would have called my new job and said hey I can start sooner if you need me. I wouldn't use the jerk off who fires people who resign as a reference for anything except maybe if I was a professional pooper scooper.
When you were hired, was there a clause in your contract that you were required to give two weeks' notice (or one week)? It would be of interest if you were to talk with an employment attorney. I'm thinking there isn't much the attorney could do but it would be good to know how the question of 'did you leave voluntarily or not' and 'is he/she eligible for rehire' would be handled.
Also, file for Unemployment asap. Don't wait. Companies hate that.
If you are now 'fired', you are eligible for unemployment. If you have any time gap between now and your new job, sign up. If they want to fight it, it will take some of their time and money and you may have the opportunity to discuss their business practices with an unemployment commission. Second, employers will say if you were terminated or left voluntarily and if you are eligible for rehire. They may volunteer more, but generally will not to avoid any liability. This particular company sounds poor, so who knows what they will do.
I work in HR for a small business, so I have experience in this. YMMV.
First, if the OP does not have a copy of the termination letter, what is to stop the company from 'losing' the termination letter and claiming that the OP resigned so that they can get out off paying unemployment?
Also, many employment laws do not apply to small companies. What law has the employer broken here?
Same thing happened to me. I gave a two week notice, my boss begged me to stay. I told her I would think about it and when I told her I made my decision, and wanted to leave, she fired me. Funny thing is, when she called me to fire me, she told me that they were looking for someone to take my place for that night. If they couldn't find someone I was going to have to come in. Well, they found someone to work that night so they told me not to come in. I never signed anything, BTW.
Looks like the best thing to do would be to live and learn. Worst case scenario, if a future prospective employer finds out you were "fired" you can explain the situation the best you can. Since you knew this employer had a habit of doing this to other employees why didn't you have a plan if it happened to you? It seems like you failed to plan for this situation and therefore didn't take the best course of action when it did happen. Not sure you can make anyone sign anything but next time just email you resignation letter so at least you'll have a date you notified them.
BTW if it happened to me I'd just keep my cool and act nonchalant about the whole thing.
Boss: You're fired, you need to sign this termination letter or else you can't leave.
Me: Ehhh, no thanks, I don't want to sign anything. Well at least I'll have a little vacation before my next job.
Boss: HEEYYY did you hear me, you can't leave until you sign this letter.
Me: Thanks but no thanks, I'm going now, take it easy. *Walks out door*
He's done this to other people before, but it doesn't make the experience feel any better. I do have a copy of the letter and I also have my colleagues who can ALL back me up that I actually resigned (Since I told them I was resigning and they saw my letter, etc), but like others said, I ended up signing his stupid termination letter in the heat of the moment/being disgusted, and here we are.
At least my colleagues are willing to provide me positive references (they were shocked to hear what he did) and they reached out to me to say so.
[shrug]... word gets around in this internet age. He'll have to deal with the bad reputation he's set up for himself and his company.
As for other employers... if they really want you for a combination of your qualifications, having an employer from a previous company saying you were "fired" isn't exactly some death sentence that now means you're no longer employable. Employers understand that there are petty managers, or otherwise poorly run companies. Especially sometimes through no fault.
BTW, if you wanted professional, managerial references, you won't want them from this manager of your ex-company. Not because you're now listed as "fired", but this guy was being petty and probably wasn't going to give you a good one anyways. See if "coworker" professional references are available, but otherwise, move on.
That was the right time for a "sure, I'll sign it, just let me grab something from my car, I'll be right back" moment.
Then again, this guy sounds like he'd have forged your signature, so maybe writing on it that you already resigned was, as you stated, your best move (with going ahead and signing it, as you did, being the second best).
I believe instances like these are why you're supposed to schedule a vacation and then resign right when your vacation starts...or something like that.
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