Published
You are not going to get unemployment if you were fired for cause (which you were) I do not know a single person in our situation who has ever won an appeal for unemployment. If as you say you have a documented mental health problem especially of you were in treatment (like taking anti-depressants) you might qualify for short term disability of your state has that. Again this is only if you have an actual diagnosis of a mental health issue - I am not talking about gaming the system as honesty in all our affairs is the key to recovery.
I was blessed that my employer told me, apply for unemployment, we will not fight it. Just get better. And they were true to their word. Not bragging about it, but I didn't realize that isn't usually the case. Curious to see what others say.
I was fortunate enough (if you can call it that) to land in similar circumstances twice: once when I quit my hospital job due to being unable to handle the stress anymore, and once when I was let go essentially for being mentally ill and needing time off from work at a bad time. (I was suffering from poorly-controlled bipolar disorder and anxiety.) Neither employer fought my unemployment claim. I also got unemployment once after an administrator told me---as she was firing me after a bad survey---to go ahead and file, the company would not fight it. And she was as good as her word...I even got some free therapy via their EAP after I was out the door.
The office of unemployment does not have the authority to force you to disclose personal health information. I went round and round with a gentleman on the phone who wanted to know how an RN could be unemployed...
The hospital may or may not fight it, it is an odd place- on the one hand they can say they fired you for theft, on the other hand the theft is related to your illness.
It is definitely worth trying to get... benefits should be there when you need them- you need them now
StillRN
161 Posts
I was just FINALLY given my denial letter for unemployment. Of course, I can appeal. But if i do appeal, I think i will basically have to lie and say that when I admitted it was just because I was advised to by my union rep and I wanted to save a witch hunt and my license. I certainly dont feel good about doing that.. but if it worked.. I definitely need the money.
Have any of you been denied and won an appeal? How so? They sure like to say ugly things about you in those letters. I think I will just start wearing a scarlet letter A pinned to my nose!