UNEMPLOYMENT INSURANCE - VOLUNTARY SEPARATION

Recently, I had a hearing and the issue was whether there was a compelling good cause for a voluntary separation. We established that but the administrative law judge also asked questions in order to ascertain whether the claimant had taken reasonable steps to protect her job and try to resolve the issue with the employer which established the compelling good cause(i.e. whether the good cause was discrimination, harassment, etc.). Such steps would include meetings with the supervisor, complaints to Human Resources, following procedure in employee handbook, etc. The theory being, according to the judge, is that if you quit, you should have at least made efforts to save your job. I would thus opine that, unless there is an immediate safety issue which requires you to quit immediately, Claimants should make every reasonable effort to protect their job before they resign.