Share Your Story: Have you ever been unemployed?
Have you ever been unemployed? We know that people become unemployed for many reasons. Including:
- Family reasons: Did you have to leave your last job because of domestic violence, sexual assault, to care for a sick family member, or because you relocated with a spouse who found a job in another area?
- Military spouses: Are you a military spouse who was denied unemployment insurance benefits because you left your last job to relocate with your spouse to a new base?
- Public service workers: Did you work for your local government as a teacher, firefighter, librarian, police officer, or in another public service job? Or were you employed by a non-profit organization that provided community services?
- Part time workers: Are you a part-time worker who was denied unemployment insurance benefits? Did you spend the majority of your time in your last job as a part-time employee and are now looking for another part-time job? Were you rejected from receiving unemployment insurance because of your part-time status?
Some states have reformed their unemployment insurance laws. Your story will help make the case for reforming the law in your state.
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Your Stories
Traci D. Depew
Burlington, KY, Former Home Depot REceiving Supervisor
I am a 47 year old white female. I recently got terminated from a 9 1/2 year position with Home Depot. The last 2 years I was a Receiving Supervisor, a position usally held by MEN. During that time I could not discuss my income but I knew that the men in this same postion were making at least $2-$4 an hour more than I was. In all the years I worked for HD I had never had anyone feel threatened by me but all the sudden in the Supervisor position men suddenly felt intimidated by a female in power and they started complaining to management becasue I was using my authority. Management never backed me up, if anything they told me to kiss ass and bite my tongue in most situations. I am, and always will be a very hard worker, I take great pride in doing a good job and I expect to be treated with respect. I feel the men I came in contact with on a daily basis made me feel like I shouldn't be in the Supervisory postion and many of them did everything in their power to make me feel disrespected. I know I am in a southern state but that is not an excuse for HD to pay me less than a man nor should I be treated any differently than a man. Home Depot is far from keeping up with the times as far as wormen and equallity. I hope and pray Home Depot goes out of business. They are horrible to therir employees and it just keeps getting worse.
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melanie stir
, GA, 3rd shift dairy/frozen associate
I was hired on to unload trucks,break down on average 4-5 pallets of freight a night,put out freight on shelves while rotating and checking dates with the help of one other person. That person was more concerned with the condition of how the cases(boxes) were stacked on the palletas and carts than anything else, over putting the freight out. They would stand in front of the item(s)on the shelves for 2-3 minutes on average trying to decide if the product would go on the shelves or not. I was putting out 6 cases of freight to their one, cases being at least 4 items or more.
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Jen
, California, none
I have recently been contacted by my daughter's absent father, of over 12 years or so. He has repeatedly informed us of how much money he is making and about the health care coverage that has apparently been available for over 5 or 6 years now. My daughter just turned 17 in June... in less than a year this man will be free of any obligations to pay support. He owns a parcel of land, he just purchased a travel trailer for $15,000.00 from a neighbor, he paid the expenses for a father's day weekend we spent in Redding, Ca. just last month. That weekend included two hotel rooms(4 days), meals, movies, shasta caverns tour, $700.00 in clothes shopping, $80.00 for a mommy & daughter manicure, and other misc. charges. He also paid for the expenses of a trip to drop my daughter and her boy friend with him in Benicia, Ca.(13 days...though after the lies were uncovered she called and asked me to come get her and for us to go home), and I was to collect them from him in Tollhouse, Ca. This trip he sent me $360.00 for fuel, and another $140.00 in cash when I found myself overbudget. This man has over $20,000.00 in child support arrears!?! My daughter and I only began receiving support about 8 years ago (she is 17 now, and was 8 the first time we received a payment), and we only receive about $50.00 a week. This man has managed to acquire assets that could pay this debt in full over and over again?!? If I were to receive any public assistance... I would go from $50.00 a week in child support down to $50.00 a month. Somehow, he has obtained a job paying him as much as $100,000.00 per year. He has the means and finances to have paid this off years ago, but has gone out of his way to duck and dodge this obligation. What offends me the most, is the casual way he would use the phrase 'money is not a problem!', 'she won't ever have to worry about money for college, her own photography studio, etc.' While things may be a walk in the park for him... money is and always has been a problem for us. I can't respect any man that can spend more on his toys and entertainment than he has ever provided to his child!! This is yet another major flaw in our system.. That a single mother on public assistance can have her aid reduced or canceled for the smallest financial increases in her bank, but the absent father who owes over $20,000.00 toward the assistance she receives, can (without the burden of parental obligations..) amass land, assets, credit, cars, trucks, guns, trailers, etc., and earn wages up and over $100,000.00 without even increasing the amount he is ordered to pay?!? How can anyone be surprised about a women's desire for free birth control and access to abortion? In essence, women become dependent on a system that allows men to hide out and get rich!Did I mention, when he made contact with us... he stated he was in the process of leaving his new baby's momma and made it clear he had interest in rekindling a relationship with me? His new child is only 3 years old. And after speaking with the other mother, I have come to learn that the reason he is able to dodge his debts is that the bills/accounts are largely in her name and that he only pays the $600.00 rent for their family. She is an accountant as I understand. I can only imagine what their combined income totals are. When he thought I might take him back, he made promises to open a limited access account for my daughter, add her to his insurance and increase his court ordered support. When I informed him that I am not interested in a new relationship with him and that I was contacting the child support office myself.. he behaved like I had just threatened him in some way...?? To someone like him, I guess the thought of losing your shiny new toys is a threat... !! I would love to know a legal route I can take to ensure my daughter receives the support that he has elected not to provide and that his assets are confiscated to pay off the debts to the government!
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Fran
north tonawanda, new york, Electronic assembler/Qc inspector
I am a 51 year old woman who has always worked hard and has high work ethics. I would say for the last 10years the workforce is getting extreamly worse. I worked for a government contract company and was harrassed by my manager all of the time because I would stand up for my rights and ask for a liveable wage. My manager told me that I poorly neg. when I started employment. Because of my confirtation asking for a liveable wage I was now stuck in a job, where my manager would promote workers who came in after me, and would not give me work that I was capable of doing. Instead I would get work assigned to me that was entry level. Because of this managers actions, I was caught up in a Reduction of workforce 2 years ago and had to sign a paper that stated i could not take this employer to court or i would not receive my severance pay. So I let this matter go. I got a new job working for a Printed circuit board manufacturing company. I was hired to program a Inspection machine useing CAD Data Gerber files. This was a very small company just starting out. I wanted to help this company and my quaility standards was high. I have seen problems with the programing of this machine and questioned my co-worker who programed also, why polarity was not flaged on Intergrated circuits? My co-worker response was we dont need to do that we use the writing of the part for the orientation,this to me was wrong. So i went to my supervisor and asked for a meeting to talk about programing and how it should be done. At the meetings management agreed with my views and wanted this change to take place. My co-worker did not like this and would challenge me all the time. Then he reported to management that the files were all getting corupted. This is not true.. this machine was already corupted when i started working there.. Management did not know how the machine should be programed and decided to let only my co-worker program .of course my co-worker is a man,! So I continued to just operate this machine inspecting boards to IPC-610 STD's. I would tell my supervisor of parts that were not caught by this machine that did not meet the standards for the customer . My co-worker would then reprogram the machine to catch the problems. My management liked my knowledge of quaility and asked me to go with them to a customers site with them. I went on this bussiness trip and won the contract for this company. With my word to this customer that the quailty would meet there standards, management allowed less quailified employees to work on this product. when the product shipped to the customer parts were not correct. My co-worker who programs the machine was the one who installed and put on reversed. I was embarrassed. The customer was not happy. I mentioned all this to bring this information to you. We lost many contracts with different customers. There was alot of bad decisions made by management. Because of this they had to reduce the workforce. I was not involved in that lay-off. I still worked on the machine and work was really slow. At this time , it was brought to my attention by another co-worker that one of the employees there is a sex offender. This employee works the night shift but would start at 12pm and we would have contact with this person. I am a woman, this was very disturbing news for me. I thought another bad desisson by management. I asked to be lay- off. I was told yes , i can leave now. I went home. I was not happy at this company. 1 hour after i claimed unemployment, management called me and said they spoke to soon, they have work . think about it . The next day i called work, I asked to speak to my supervisor, he was no where to be found. I left my number with the front desk. No return calls. this company reported to unemployment that i voluntary quit my job causeing me to not quailify for unemployment benefits. I am currently on appeal. Men in my profession , do not like woman in a higher position with knowledge. I beleive information was given to me by a male co-worker to upset me enough to leave. And i didn't even metion the fact that the male co-worker doing the same job as me was making 4 dollars hr more than myself.
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Bernadette Jackson
orlando, fl,
Bernadette’s Story I want to share with you ladies a story that I hope none of you have to face in your careers. I am an African American woman of 37 years of age, and I was fired by a major transportation company here in Orlando, Fl. Why? According to the EEOC, this company violated my Title7 Civil Rights Act of 1964. Here’s my testimony: I was hired by this transportation company in June of 2011 for call center/ dispatch position within in the company. As with any other company in orientation, there was a dress code policy. It was a standard policy. I signed it, therefore meaning I was in agreement with it. A few months into my employment the hiring manager was replaced with another. Three months after he took over, the new manager choose to implement a new dress code policy. This was around the middle of November of my hiring year. I don’t sign anything without reading it thoroughly. In this new policy a hair clause was added. What was disturbing about the policy was the verbiage for one. In this policy it stated that all African American women are to report to work with their hair in a color they were born (black or brown with no dyeing) but subtle highlighting and frosting is permitted. We as African American women do not highlight or frost our hair. The policy also goes as to say no dreadlock are acceptable. Now ladies I have dreadlocks. But mine are kept in a beautiful and extra neat fashion. So neat they get mistaken for braids or extensions. I have been a dread for over ten years; my hair is below my waist. But I was hired with them and now it’s presented a problem. The policy goes on to say no head wraps are allowed. For my Islam, Rastafarian, and Muslim sisters that is a problem. They are required to adorn themselves with such. Ladies there are three violations here. Number one the dyeing issue was “not even across the board.” The dreadlocks issue is a violation of Title7 Chapter 15 where it says in affect that, “An African American cannot not be discriminated against for having their hair in a natural state.” The state which my hair is in. Thirdly, they violated religious rights with the statement ‘no head wraps permitted.’ This truly is a violation of civil rights. When asked to sign this policy, I refused. I was asked to sign it on December 22, 2011. But the policy didn’t go into effect until January 2, 2012. I refused. And I explained why I refused in a professional manner, pointing out how bias it was. Management wanted me to resign since I refused to sign. But I refused them (he and his assistant) to further insult my intelligence, so I refused to sign a resignation. So he fired me on the spot. This is considered retaliation. I have since been depressed and stressed out because of being fired, because without the income things fall apart rapidly. I wanted to share this with you ladies. Any questions or comments or advice, feel free to email me!! Thank You! Sincerely, Bernadette
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Rebecca
Jefferson, Georgia, Former Travel Rep for major credit card company elite clients
At the age of 52, I realize things have not changed all that much for women in the workplace. Yes some women do make it, but many more of us don’t survive the male dominated world of Corporate America. Up until May 2012 I had been actively employed for over 30 yrs. I was proud to be at the top of my game at work; experience, mature and able to do my job providing outstanding service for my Company. Then one day I receive word my Mother was dying of cancer, I explained to my male boss who was half my age and no life skills that I would need to be off from time to time to take care of my Mother, even if it meant without pay. Then one day while I was at work I get a call from the hospital advising me Mom passed away. I could not help but to feel an overwhelming sadness knowing my Mom died without me being able to say goodbye. Once I returned to work after the funeral, things seemed fine and I continued to do my job; then one day my boss pulled me into the office and told me he was firing me for poor attendance? My heart fell to my knees, how could this be happening to me, so many emotions filled my thoughts. I left work in a state of shock, my boss knew my situation, yet the state of Georgia is a right to fire State meaning an employer does not have to have a reason to fire someone. I have taken my case to the Georgia Dept of Labor to ask why my job was not protected under the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act signed into place by President Clinton when he was in office; which entitles employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave. To my surprise I now realize big companies don't play by the rules, and for the Georgia Dept of Labor neither do they. Here in the deep South women dont have any rights, just the good old boy system, it is like living a nightmare, things must change for women here in the South.
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christine Felix
tucson, az, former collections specialist Clerk of Superior Court Pima County
am a 47 year old Hispanic Female I have worked since 1981 in Finance with Major Companys like General Motors Department of 5efense Tricare and UPS Pima County Attorneys Office and most Recently in a judicial position, have 4 daughters and 5 dogs and a husband. I was injured seriously when the elevator in my building caught my right arm, It took me a year of surgical and physical therapy, after returning I endured the worst retaliation possible, sexual harrassment, working overtime several days a month and when I asked my supervisor why I couldn't get paid overtime he said it was expected of me to come in early and stay late if I had to-My supervisor made horible comments to me when i made a minor mistake things like "you better get a new dealer" or you need to clean your crack pipe" he kept reprimanding me when I was out of balance but no one else if they did the same. I injured my back October 2, 2012, I filed a claim with workmans compensation and without it even being approved the sent me all my personal items with a letter attached stating I was fired based on my cashiering, my title is collectios specialist. They even have a standard on this I personally know the cashiers and they all have not balanced occasionally even more times than I. I'm so hurt and confused in one second I feel like my life was pulled out from under me. I am a 47 year old hispanic woman who has been through the worst retaliation possible after my arm was caught in the elevator at my workplace at the clerk of superior court inson az. I worked of overtime and never saw a dime only to be told it was expected of me. endured sexual harrasment and when I went to the associate director he said what do you want me to do? They just fed exed all my belongings with a letter attached saying I was terminated. so many other horrible things were done and said to me I would need an hour just to write it down. I know am living a nightmare with no income or health insurance. I just can't imagine how many other women in my position do, I gave up 12 years of hard work to them worked a ton of overtime and never saw a dime. I need help!
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