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Two
Days
by Dr. Lynne
Curry
Question:
Two days after I accepted my dream job, I woke up to a nightmare.
My new employer’s secretary called, said there’d been a
mistake, the job wasn’t mine after all. I asked, "What do
you mean?" and she said her boss had found someone he liked
better and since I wasn’t aboard yet, he decided to offer my new
job to an applicant who would work for less money and had better
credentials. I said, "He can’t do that, I’ve already quit
my old job." She said, "Well, that’s really too bad
but this other man has already started and he’s more qualified
than you and there isn’t any job for you. Maybe your old
employer will hire you back." Then she hung up.
What do I do now?
I quit my job yesterday and unfortunately told my boss what I’d
thought of him these last two years. I can’t go back. When I
told him he’d lost me because he hadn’t realized the value I’d
brought to the firm, he’d told me I didn’t need to work out my
final two weeks. I feel like I got screwed because I was nice
enough to offer to give two weeks notice and that lost me my new
job.
What I want to
know is, since I gave two weeks notice and my boss told me to
leave that day, can I get pay for those two weeks? In addition,
can I file for unemployment stating I was fired as I was willing
to work those two weeks? Does this new employer have to give me
two weeks notice since I was already hired?
Answer:
Next time, don’t burn your bridges so quickly. When you thumb
your nose at a soon to be former employer, you lose a bridge you
may later need to walk back over.
The first bad
news -- your former employer doesn’t have to pay you for the two
weeks you would have worked. Many employers accept resignations
"on the spot" because they worry about the morale cost
of keeping a departing employee. According to department of labor
officials, because you offered to leave, your employer owes you
neither notice nor severance. However, employers who accept
resignations "on the spot," particularly when the
employee offers to work, risk "re-characterizing" the
employee’s resignation as a discharge.
The good news –
you may benefit from being discharged. The department of labor
delays unemployment benefits for six weeks to those who resign.
Because your employer sent you on your way, the department of
labor may waive this six-week waiting period.
The other bad
news – you probably won’t get money from your new employer –
unless you can prove you were offered the job. According to
attorney turned management consultant Lisa Cronan, "You may
have a hiring-fraud claim based on the promise that your almost
employer made to you, the fact that you relied on his promise and
by so doing were harmed when you lost a secure job."
In a landmark
"broken promises" case, former pro football player Phil
McConkey successfully sued a company for hiring-fraud by showing
he suffered harm when he relied on a prospective new employer’s
promises and accepted a management job that then evaporated.
McConkey won $23 million.
To win a lawsuit
like McConkey did, you have to prove your version of the facts and
show valid damages. Unless your almost-employer gave you a written
employment offer, you have nothing that shows he hired you.
Although the secretary can substantiate you thought you were
hired, she might change her story if you decide to sue her boss.
Further, says Cronan, the fact that your almost-employer hired
someone who started before you became available to work weakens
your case.
If take this
route, you’d also have to hire an attorney and pursue someone
you once wanted to work for. Do you want to burn a new bridge in
exchange for damages that may total less than your attorney costs?
After all, although you may feel you’d never work for this
employer based on what he’s done to you, will you feel that way
if the employee he hired doesn’t work out and he calls you in a
week?
Meanwhile, your
current situation remains a nightmare only if you make it one. You
weren’t harmed because you were "nice enough to offer two
weeks notice." You lost two weeks pay because an employer
broke his promise to hire you and because you said the wrong thing
at the wrong time to the wrong person. You can work to get money
from two former employers or you can wake up, learn from your and
their mistakes and move forward.
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