Plan of Attack

Most people think that you cannot receive unemployment benefits when you quit your job. Despite that general feeling, it is possible to receive benefits when you quit your job. When you decide to quit your job, the reason for separating from your employer will become most important in your quest for getting benefits. The burden of proof will fall on you to prove that you left for good cause.

To receive an unemployment benefit due to quitting a job, you will need to provide a very convincing argument that gave you a good reason. You will have to proof that leaving was justified otherwise the employer will win the case and you will not receive unemployment benefits. You must demon...

Your employer does have the ability to make some changes to your role, but if you can compare your new role to other jobs that make more money and your pay didn’t change, you can claim that you quit because your new situation was one that was unreasonable. If you were hired to do a particular job and your employer changed the position, you can explain that you were very satisfied with your role. Recently your employer decided to change your role to benefit the company and didn’t consider the fact that you were hired in for a particular job.

When you confronted them with the issues, they were ignored and you felt the only thing you could do was to quit. At this point, your employer...

You may have quit your job due to a change in your transportation to your employer. If you always relied on your car and it is no longer working, you have to either buy a new car or rely on other forms of transportation to get to work. Explain to the interviewer that you never had problems with the car until recently and that you are unable to pay for the repairs on the car. If you do not live near public transportation, tell the interviewer that. You may also live far enough away from your employer that public transportation may not make sense. Explain what you have tried to do to get to work, such as carpooling or moving closer to the employer but based on your current situation these are ...

If there were safety or health concerns that were hazardous, you may have cause to quit your job. After bringing your concerns to management’s attention and nothing was done, you may have been left with no other alternative. There may have been a harmful smell or safety hazards that were not attended to. Before quitting, you spoke with your chain of command and were made to sit by knowing that nothing was being done about it. Explain to your interviewer what steps you took to alleviate the situation and who you spoke with. After explaining these steps, tell the interviewer what the employer did to help the situation. You want to convey that any reasonable person would have had to quit ...

Because of a health concern or other personal issue, you may have been absent from your employer for an extended period of time. Explain to your interviewer that you kept in contact with your employer, but based on your personal or health issue, you felt it necessary to quit your job. At the time you did, you did not know how much longer you would have been out of work. In addition, you may have had an emergency that came up with your family where you had to leave but believed; based on conversations you had with your manager, that you would be fired upon your return. If you are able to convince the unemployment personnel that you would have been fired upon your return, your employer would h...

During your interview, you should also explain how you couldn’t control the issues that motivated you to separate from your job, such as a health related concern. Explain of course your health comes first for you and your family and that you wished you could have kept from quitting. When speaking to the interviewer convey that you only quit under your doctor’s advisement.

When you begin to try to prove that quitting your job was justifiable was, you have to show that the conditions where you were working was an unreasonable work environment. Another cause for quitting your job is an external stress factor that was within the control of the employer and they did not change the situation. Other times there some sort of physical limitation that causes the separation.

Anytime you are called on to discuss the specifics about quitting your former job, always emphasize the distinction between your employment and position before and then after the motivating factor began. When you explain the situation, do not just explain the incidents but also tell how satisfied you...

If you are unemployed due to a labor dispute, you can still receive unemployment benefits if you are not participating in the labor dispute which is causing the work stoppage. If you are not a member of the union organization you may also receive unemployment benefits. If your position does not belong to the class of workers involved in the dispute, you can be eligible for benefits. For example if you work in the office and the assembly line is striking and causes the entire corporation to stop doing business, you can receiving unemployment benefits.

As a former employee who quit your job by retiring, you will need to emphasize that you were unsuccessful in finding alternatives to quitting.

If you were confronted by certain people or manager, speak to these situations during your interviews with the unemployment personnel. List all of the alternatives that you considered before retiring and then tell why the alternatives did not work. Explain that you felt the only thing you could do is to retire from the company voluntarily because you felt you may be terminated or forced to retire if you didn’t accept this option.

Explain why transferring or taking a temporary leave would not have worked and helped your personal situation. Make sure that you explain what steps you went through to consider other alternatives. They need to hear that you really thought things through and couldn’t come up with any other alternative.

Before you quit your job, you would have given your employer your grievances. This gives the employer the opportunity to fix some of the issues that you may have. When you decide to quit, you should notify your employer of your last day giving them notice that you will be leaving. Explain that the final notification was the last of several conversations where you and other tried to expres...