Unemployment Articles and Guides

Your employer let you go because you got sick, got hurt, or got pregnant. That’s not something you did wrong — but does it still count as misconduct?

Fired over something you posted on your own time? Your boss calls it misconduct. The state may see it differently.

Your boss calls it a "violent outburst." You call it losing your temper once. States draw a real line between the two — and it's not the one your termination letter suggests. Welcome to Part 7 of our Discharge Series, where we break down how state unemployment agencies actually evaluate common firing reasons. If a heated argument or physical dispute ended with HR checking the “workplace violence” box, don’t assume your claim is dead on arrival. What company policy calls “viol

Fired For Stealing? An Accusation Isn't Proof - And Neither Is a Firing If you were fired for stealing, the accusation alone doesn't decide your unemployment claim. States look at what the employer can actually prove. I remember a case like this from my years in the system: a warehouse employee was fired for "theft" after a supervisor found a company-owned tool in his truck at the end of a shift. No camera footage, no admission, no inventory record showing it missing before t

A Positive Test Doesn't Always Mean You're Disqualified Early in my career, I watched a colleague make a determination that stuck with me. A claimant had tested positive for illegal drugs and was let go as a result, and my colleague disqualified him for misconduct on that basis alone. There was one problem: the employer had no drug policy. No rule against drug use, nothing the claimant had ever agreed to or been warned about. The claimant's job also wasn't a safety-sensitive

Refusing a task and losing your temper aren't the same thing under the law. Here's how each gets judged. Discharge Quick Answer Series, Part 4 Got fired after pushing back on your boss, saying the wrong thing in the heat of the moment, or refusing a task, and now the denial letter says “insubordination”? That word covers two different situations, and states don’t treat them the same way. Before you assume your claim is dead, it’s worth understanding exactly what adjudicators

Not every policy violation disqualifies you. Here's what states look at before they decide. You broke a rule at work — maybe a dress-code violation, using your phone on the production floor when it wasn’t allowed, or not following a required safety procedure like wearing required protective equipment. Now you’ve got a termination letter that says “violation of company policy,” and you’re wondering whether that phrase just cost you your unemployment benefits too. Here’s the sh

Why 'not good enough' and misconduct aren't the same thing — and what actually decides your claim. This is Part 2 of our Discharge Series. Last week, we covered attendance—showing up late, calling in too often, or walking off the job. This week, it’s performance: what happens when your employer says you just weren’t cutting it? The two may look similar from the outside, but for unemployment purposes, they often turn on a different question entirely. What It Is A poor-performa

Why the reason behind your last absence can matter more than how many you had. This is Part 1 of our Discharge Series. Getting fired doesn’t automatically disqualify you from unemployment benefits — it depends on the specific reason, and the details matter more than most people realize. Each article in this series takes one common firing reason and breaks down what states actually look at when they decide your claim. You missed too many days, or showed up late one too many ti

Most people assume being fired disqualifies them. Here’s what the system actually looks at. If you just lost your job — and your employer ended your employment — your first instinct might be to assume unemployment benefits are off the table. That instinct is wrong. And it costs people thousands of dollars every year. Here’s the truth from someone who spent 30 years inside the unemployment insurance system: being discharged does not automatically disqualify you. What matters i