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Louis C.K. on Saturday Night Live
I saw Louis C.K. on SNL last Saturday. I was in stitches. I didn't know much about him (I think it's a generational thing), but I had heard (from my 16 year-old son) that he is funny. Good info, Son!
Should I Resign or Let Them Fire Me?
I get so many calls on this issue that I am dropping this quick Post, with the hopes that those facing this difficult choice may find this and be able to make an informed decision.
I have written on this issue many times, from a variety of perspectives. The links at the end of this Post provide answers to many questions relating to the effect of quitting on things such as your right to Unemployment Compensation, your right to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination, etc.
Recently, I discussed the effect of "confessions" on your rights under the law. What does that have to do with the topic at hand? Well, many employers who provide employees with the Hobson's Choice of resignation versus termination seek to obtain a "confession" from the employee to avoid obligations under the Unemployment Compensation law or employment laws such as Title VII. Click Here to see my "confession" Post.
In any event, here are the "quick and dirty" things you should know when deciding whether to quit or be fired:
* Your employment record is not public, and cannot be disclosed to the public. Therefore, the suggestion that you should resign "to protect your record" is simply eyewash. The employer wants you to resign so it can avoid paying Unemployment Compensation Benefits -plain and simple.
* The notion that potential new employers look more favorably upon a resignation than they do a termination is hogwash. In these days, potential employers are very leery of anyone who "resigned" from their old job without a new one in hand;
* The thought that resigning will enable you at future job interviews to "be honest" about what happened at your old job is incorrect. Any interviewer who hears you say you resigned will immediately ask: "Why?" At that point, you will have two choices: 1) Tell them the truth that you were forced to resign because of alleged poor performance, misconduct, etc; or, 2) lie and say it just wasn't a good fit for you, or some similar explanation;
* If you quit your job, you will not get Unemployment Compensation benefits UNLESS YOUR FIRING WAS IMMINENT AT THE TIME OF YOUR RESIGNATION. That's one of the reasons that the favorite expression of lawyers that represent employers is "A quit is always better than a fire."
John A. Gallagher is an employment lawyer who represents employees in Pennsylvania.
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| Careful |
I have written on this issue many times, from a variety of perspectives. The links at the end of this Post provide answers to many questions relating to the effect of quitting on things such as your right to Unemployment Compensation, your right to file a lawsuit for wrongful termination, etc.
Recently, I discussed the effect of "confessions" on your rights under the law. What does that have to do with the topic at hand? Well, many employers who provide employees with the Hobson's Choice of resignation versus termination seek to obtain a "confession" from the employee to avoid obligations under the Unemployment Compensation law or employment laws such as Title VII. Click Here to see my "confession" Post.
In any event, here are the "quick and dirty" things you should know when deciding whether to quit or be fired:
* Your employment record is not public, and cannot be disclosed to the public. Therefore, the suggestion that you should resign "to protect your record" is simply eyewash. The employer wants you to resign so it can avoid paying Unemployment Compensation Benefits -plain and simple.
* The notion that potential new employers look more favorably upon a resignation than they do a termination is hogwash. In these days, potential employers are very leery of anyone who "resigned" from their old job without a new one in hand;
* The thought that resigning will enable you at future job interviews to "be honest" about what happened at your old job is incorrect. Any interviewer who hears you say you resigned will immediately ask: "Why?" At that point, you will have two choices: 1) Tell them the truth that you were forced to resign because of alleged poor performance, misconduct, etc; or, 2) lie and say it just wasn't a good fit for you, or some similar explanation;
* If you quit your job, you will not get Unemployment Compensation benefits UNLESS YOUR FIRING WAS IMMINENT AT THE TIME OF YOUR RESIGNATION. That's one of the reasons that the favorite expression of lawyers that represent employers is "A quit is always better than a fire."
John A. Gallagher is an employment lawyer who represents employees in Pennsylvania.
Click Here if you have questions about any aspect of employment law, from wrongful termination, to wage and overtime claims, to discrimination and retaliation laws, to Family and Medical Leave…
Click Here if you have questions about any aspect of Pennsylvania Unemployment Law, from willful misconduct, to voluntary quit, to Referee Hearings, to severance issues…
Click Here to e-mail John directly.
Thanks for checking in with us.
You have read this article with the title January 2013. You can bookmark this page URL http://clapclapclappp.blogspot.com/2013/01/should-i-resign-or-let-them-fire-me.html. Thanks!
CONFESSIONS and Pennsylvania Unemployment Law
PA UNEMPLOYMENT QUESTIONNAIRE DO's and DONT's
I am sure that most applicants for Pennsylvania Unemployment Benefits have little or no idea as to how the process actually works. How could they? Unlike employers' who terminate many people and are intimately familiar with the unemployment process, many employees have never been fired, or applied for benefits before.
As we have discussed in the past, your claim is first analyzed and decided by the Pennsylvania Service Center. Thereafter, if either side appeals from the Service Center's determination, a Hearing before a Pennsylvania Unemployment Referee is held.
Critically, if you were terminated from your job, then the employer BEARS THE BURDEN OF PROVING YOU ENGAGED IN WILLFUL MISCONDUCT. This can often be a difficult thing for an employer to do, since very often the facts that the employer needs to prove to win at the Referee Hearing are inadmissible Hearsay.
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| Resist the Urge to "Come Clean" |
In a recent Post, we discussed how employers attempt to obtain confessions from employees in order to gain maximum strategical advantage when terminating an employee. If you have avoided such a confession to your employer, then you are working with a clean slate when applying for unemployment benefits.
If your claim is being contested, you will likely receive an Employee Questionnaire, which asks you to provide your position on the matter. Here, many employees make a crucial mistake: They confess to having done wrong, often "explaining" that "everyone does it" or suggesting that they were justified due to factors over which you had no control.
The thinking, I believe, is that the Unemployment Service Center will "see my point of view" and "will appreciate my honesty." These thoughts are flawed.
In my view, one must be very, very careful when completing an Employee Questionnaire. In fact, if you have been accused of document falsification, theft or dishonesty, committing a serious work rule violation that caused damage to the company's property, or otherwise engaging in similarly serious misconduct, you may assume that the Service Center will rule against you no matter what you say.
Hence, in such circumstances, my advice is: don't complete the Questionnaire. Better to say nothing and get ready for the Referee Hearing than to say something that is tantamount to an admission that will cost you dearly at such Hearing.
For a discussion on additional Pitfalls of "Confession" as relates to your employment rights, Click Here.
The thinking, I believe, is that the Unemployment Service Center will "see my point of view" and "will appreciate my honesty." These thoughts are flawed.
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| Service Center: Friend or Foe? |
Hence, in such circumstances, my advice is: don't complete the Questionnaire. Better to say nothing and get ready for the Referee Hearing than to say something that is tantamount to an admission that will cost you dearly at such Hearing.
For a discussion on additional Pitfalls of "Confession" as relates to your employment rights, Click Here.
John A. Gallagher is an employment lawyer who represents employees in Pennsylvania.
Click Here if you have questions about any aspect of employment law, from wrongful termination, to wage and overtime claims, to discrimination and retaliation laws, to Family and Medical Leave…
Click Here if you have questions about any aspect of Pennsylvania Unemployment Law, from willful misconduct, to voluntary quit, to Referee Hearings, to severance issues…
Click Here to e-mail John directly.
Thanks for checking in with us.
You have read this article with the title January 2013. You can bookmark this page URL http://clapclapclappp.blogspot.com/2013/01/confessions-and-pennsylvania.html. Thanks!
CONFESSIONS: Avoid Them When in Trouble at Work
EMPLOYEE'S ADMISSION OF WRONGDOING WORTH ITS WEIGHT IN GOLD
As I have learned from TV shows such as NYPD Blue and Law & Order, and as I believe to be true in real life, the toughest crimes to decipher are often "solved" by obtaining a confession from the accused. Lock the suspect down, use "carrot and stick," play "good cop, bad cop" and - Voila! - case closed.
We humans are very persuaded by confessions. Confessions are very powerful tools. Confessions are hard to get around. Confessions can, for employees, be devastating.
Let me share with you two ways in which confessions come back to haunt employees.
IF YOUR EMPLOYER IS TELLING YOU IT IS DOING AN INVESTIGATION, BUT THAT YOU ARE NOT IN JEOPARDY OF BEING FIRED, BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL
In my experience, employers that conduct investigations into an employee's alleged misbehavior often make up their minds about firing the accused employee before he/she is actually interviewed during the course of the investigation. In such cases, the employer is looking for one thing, and one thing only. A Confession!
Why? Two primary reasons.
First, the employer can use an employee's admission of wrongdoing to defeat a claim of unlawful termination. Remember, the key in such cases is often whether the employer's stated reason for terminating the employee is a pretext, a lie - or otherwise so patently unfounded that it is not worthy of credibility. A confession of wrongdoing by an employee makes the employer's burden of proof in this regard much easier.
Second, the employer can use the confession to defeat a subsequent claim by the employee for unemployment benefits by simply establishing that the employee admitted to engaging in wrongdoing. Click Here to read our Post on how "making a confession" in the course of applying for Unemployment Compensation benefits can lead to a denial of your claim.
COMMON TACTICS EMPLOYED BY COMPANIES TO OBTAIN CONFESSIONS
The most common tactic is convincing the employee that his/her job is not in jeopardy, and that the employee's honesty will be valued. Implicit in this psychological strategy is the unstated suggestion that the employee will be fired if he/she is not "honest" in admitting wrongdoing, which "dishonesty" can easily be further categorized as insubordination.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO AVOIDING CONFESSION
The first thing to bear in mind, in these caustic times, is that employers who believe employees have engaged in misconduct are in many situations unforgiving and relentless. Thus, your should be aware that you will likely not be rewarded, and you will likely not be forgiven, if you confess to wrongdoing. This is sad, but true - not true for all employers, to be sure, but true for many.
If you are called into a meeting and asked to confess to wrongdoing, odds are you cannot win by being forthcoming (if you actually did the crime) or apologizing for something you did not do. Odds are, many of you will read this and disagree, believing that American employers still reward loyalty, hard work and honesty. So to those of you in this camp, I ask: When is the last time you heard about your employer, or any employer, handing out a gold watch???
Irrespective of my views, I am not suggesting that you be argumentative when asked to confess. In fact, that is the last thing you should be. Rather, you should simply state the facts as you understand them to exist if you did not engage in any wrongdoing, or say as little as possible if you did. Additionally, here are some things NOT to do:
* Do NOT write out a statement wherein you admit to responsibility. Trust me, if they are asking you to write out a statement incriminating yourself, odds are you are dead man/woman walking. That being the case, why write out your own death sentence?
* Similarly, if they have prepared a statement/report for you to sign, you may sign to acknowledge you have been shown a copy of the document, but Do NOT sign off on its accuracy.
NOTE: Try and get a copy of anything they show you (although in the majority of cases you will be refused).
* In fact, it is my view that you should strongly resist ever writing any kind of statement. Remember, whatever you say can and will be used against you.
For example, suppose the boss's favorite son has accused you of wrongdoing. You write a statement that a) implicates the favorite son in wrongdoing; or, b) professes your innocence. Under either scenario you may be hurting your cause because a) it is never a good idea to accuse the boss's favorite son of wrongdoing; b) denying the favorite's son's accusation against you is tantamount to calling him a liar - which will often boomerang against you because the boss will decide that, as between you and the favorite son, you are the liar.
* Do NOT explain your actions by saying "everyone does it." If your 10 fellow employees steal money from your employer every day, you are not "innocent" if you do the same thing - if you have violated company policy, you have violated company policy. Moreover, saying everyone else does it is seen as "blame-shifting", which is a troublesome and undesirable employee characteristic.
* Do NOT agree to resign in lieu of termination. Let them fire you. That way, you will have a much better chance of obtaining unemployment benefits.
LESS IS MORE
To be clear, I am not advocating being dishonest with your employer. If you are truly innocent, methodically state your position without being argumentative - and do not apologize for some bad thing you didn't do! If, on the other hand, you are indeed guilty as charged, say as little as possible, hem and haw, be contrite, but do not confess! Avoid writing statements that will (knowingly or accidentally) implicate yourself. They can be used down the road to impede or eliminate important legal rights you would otherwise possess.
John A. Gallagher is an employment lawyer who represents employees in Pennsylvania.
As I have learned from TV shows such as NYPD Blue and Law & Order, and as I believe to be true in real life, the toughest crimes to decipher are often "solved" by obtaining a confession from the accused. Lock the suspect down, use "carrot and stick," play "good cop, bad cop" and - Voila! - case closed.
|
| I'm Innocent, I Swear! |
Let me share with you two ways in which confessions come back to haunt employees.
IF YOUR EMPLOYER IS TELLING YOU IT IS DOING AN INVESTIGATION, BUT THAT YOU ARE NOT IN JEOPARDY OF BEING FIRED, BE VERY, VERY CAREFUL
In my experience, employers that conduct investigations into an employee's alleged misbehavior often make up their minds about firing the accused employee before he/she is actually interviewed during the course of the investigation. In such cases, the employer is looking for one thing, and one thing only. A Confession!
Why? Two primary reasons.
First, the employer can use an employee's admission of wrongdoing to defeat a claim of unlawful termination. Remember, the key in such cases is often whether the employer's stated reason for terminating the employee is a pretext, a lie - or otherwise so patently unfounded that it is not worthy of credibility. A confession of wrongdoing by an employee makes the employer's burden of proof in this regard much easier.
Second, the employer can use the confession to defeat a subsequent claim by the employee for unemployment benefits by simply establishing that the employee admitted to engaging in wrongdoing. Click Here to read our Post on how "making a confession" in the course of applying for Unemployment Compensation benefits can lead to a denial of your claim.
COMMON TACTICS EMPLOYED BY COMPANIES TO OBTAIN CONFESSIONS
The most common tactic is convincing the employee that his/her job is not in jeopardy, and that the employee's honesty will be valued. Implicit in this psychological strategy is the unstated suggestion that the employee will be fired if he/she is not "honest" in admitting wrongdoing, which "dishonesty" can easily be further categorized as insubordination.
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH TO AVOIDING CONFESSION
The first thing to bear in mind, in these caustic times, is that employers who believe employees have engaged in misconduct are in many situations unforgiving and relentless. Thus, your should be aware that you will likely not be rewarded, and you will likely not be forgiven, if you confess to wrongdoing. This is sad, but true - not true for all employers, to be sure, but true for many.
If you are called into a meeting and asked to confess to wrongdoing, odds are you cannot win by being forthcoming (if you actually did the crime) or apologizing for something you did not do. Odds are, many of you will read this and disagree, believing that American employers still reward loyalty, hard work and honesty. So to those of you in this camp, I ask: When is the last time you heard about your employer, or any employer, handing out a gold watch???
Irrespective of my views, I am not suggesting that you be argumentative when asked to confess. In fact, that is the last thing you should be. Rather, you should simply state the facts as you understand them to exist if you did not engage in any wrongdoing, or say as little as possible if you did. Additionally, here are some things NOT to do:
* Do NOT write out a statement wherein you admit to responsibility. Trust me, if they are asking you to write out a statement incriminating yourself, odds are you are dead man/woman walking. That being the case, why write out your own death sentence?
* Similarly, if they have prepared a statement/report for you to sign, you may sign to acknowledge you have been shown a copy of the document, but Do NOT sign off on its accuracy.
NOTE: Try and get a copy of anything they show you (although in the majority of cases you will be refused).
* In fact, it is my view that you should strongly resist ever writing any kind of statement. Remember, whatever you say can and will be used against you.
For example, suppose the boss's favorite son has accused you of wrongdoing. You write a statement that a) implicates the favorite son in wrongdoing; or, b) professes your innocence. Under either scenario you may be hurting your cause because a) it is never a good idea to accuse the boss's favorite son of wrongdoing; b) denying the favorite's son's accusation against you is tantamount to calling him a liar - which will often boomerang against you because the boss will decide that, as between you and the favorite son, you are the liar.
* Do NOT explain your actions by saying "everyone does it." If your 10 fellow employees steal money from your employer every day, you are not "innocent" if you do the same thing - if you have violated company policy, you have violated company policy. Moreover, saying everyone else does it is seen as "blame-shifting", which is a troublesome and undesirable employee characteristic.
* Do NOT agree to resign in lieu of termination. Let them fire you. That way, you will have a much better chance of obtaining unemployment benefits.
LESS IS MORE
To be clear, I am not advocating being dishonest with your employer. If you are truly innocent, methodically state your position without being argumentative - and do not apologize for some bad thing you didn't do! If, on the other hand, you are indeed guilty as charged, say as little as possible, hem and haw, be contrite, but do not confess! Avoid writing statements that will (knowingly or accidentally) implicate yourself. They can be used down the road to impede or eliminate important legal rights you would otherwise possess.
John A. Gallagher is an employment lawyer who represents employees in Pennsylvania.
Click Here if you have questions about any aspect of employment law, from wrongful termination, to wage and overtime claims, to discrimination and retaliation laws, to Family and Medical Leave…
Click Here if you have questions about any aspect of Pennsylvania Unemployment Law, from willful misconduct, to voluntary quit, to Referee Hearings, to severance issues…
Click Here to e-mail John directly.
Click Here to e-mail John directly.
Thanks for checking in with us.
You have read this article with the title January 2013. You can bookmark this page URL http://clapclapclappp.blogspot.com/2013/01/confessions-avoid-them-when-in-trouble.html. Thanks!
Feds Set to Approve Extension of Unemployment Benefits
According to HuffPost, Congress has agreed to extend unemployment benefits for an additional year, retroactive to December 28, 2012.
Congress first approved the extra unemployment benefits in 2008, during the worst recession since the Great Depression, and had prior to this recent action voted to reauthorize them 10 times.
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| 11th Time a Charm? |
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| Better Late Than Never? |
Click Hereif you have questions about any aspect of employment law, from wrongful termination, to wage and overtime claims, to discrimination and retaliation laws, to Family and Medical Leave…
Click Hereif you have questions about any aspect of Pennsylvania Unemployment Law, from willful misconduct, to voluntary quit, to Referee Hearings, to severance issues…
Thanks for checking in with us.
You have read this article with the title January 2013. You can bookmark this page URL http://clapclapclappp.blogspot.com/2013/01/feds-set-to-approve-extension-of.html. Thanks!
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