Legal Question in Employment Law in California
I accepted employment at a small business total 10 employees including myself. I left my prior job of 5 years for better pay and medical benefits. I have currently been working at my new job for 2 months and 2 weeks. Since starting at my new job 4 employees have quit. The second week of employment the owner has been nothing but hostile. She has broken 2 office phones out of anger. Screaming and cursing is her daily protocol. Cursing an employee to get the f_ _ _ out of the office and never return.
The current employees and myself are being emotionally abused but are too afraid to speak out for fear of losing our jobs and repercussions from the owner. I would like nothing more than to quit and still retain my rights to unemployment benefits so I can look for employment. At this point I don't know what my rights are as an employee in this situation and I tried contacting the EDD but were only able to help if I was filing a claim. The owner is well versed in unemployment benefits and has told me when I started working as her office manager that she knows she must fire or cut pay to get someone to quit to any employee before 90 days so that she will not have to pay unemployment. Any help or information you would be able to provide would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
1 Answer from Attorneys
The normal rule is, quit and lose unemployment benefits. You would have to claim and convince EDD that the hostile situation justified your quitting. There is a high burden of proof you must meet, and no assurance you would win that argument.. Every case is different, every judge is different. You roll the dice and take your chances. You'd be better off finding a new job before quitting, or getting laid of, or getting fired for performance, just not 'misconduct' or 'insubordination'. .
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