<prompt> Human: If this is the wrong sub for this, please point me in the right direction; thanks.I went into work to find an email from HR scheduling me for out processing, it was a mistake, they werent supposed to tell me until tomorrow afternoon. They went ahead and fired me today. My manager, the one firing me, is out of town. The only info Ive gotten on why, is that I used too much LWO leave without pay. I have had no complaints about my performance, literally last week they were talking about giving me a raise; the first complaint Ive had about LWO use is being fired. I used LWO for doctors appointments two days last week, Ive used all my PTO to take short days due to pain recently.Ive had one complaint about having a loud discussion it was a friendly debate from my manager, I politely disagreed with him about the conversation being inappropriate.Other than the disagreement and the time off, which I can back with ER and doctors visits, Ive been a model employee.I moved here for this position, I have a lease for another five months or so, I have enough money saved up to last me most of my lease, and theres very little work for my profession in this area.If I leave the area it will cost about 4k to break my lease; I can just barely afford that with the cost to move, but then Ill be getting into credit to eat.Thats my situation; I am very blindsided by this.Any advice would be appreciated.Edit: Im not considering a law suit. Its a dick move for them to move me cross country for a position and then fire me without notice, but I dont think its illegal; even if it were illegal, I agreed to move here for an at will position, I think itd be a dick move for me to try to sue.Assistant: Apply for unemployment now. Explain that you dont believe you were fired for just cause under your employers guidelines. It depends from state to state, but in my state, here is what would happen:Unemployment would contact your now exemployer to get their side of the story. They now have a few choicesA Just ignore it and let you get unemployment benefits even if they dont think you should with large companies, this happens more often than you thinkB Disagree with it, but not have enough proof to fight it, meaning you get benefitsC Provide proof that you were fired for just cause and that you should not get benefits. If they choose C, this is where things can get sticky. If they provide enough and proper proof, then youll be denied. However, just because they provide proof, it might not be good proof. Unemployment might say that its not enough, or they have no proof that they follow employee guidelines, or any other reason in which they didnt justify their side. In which case they might be able to provide more proof or clarification. If it is a sticky situation, then you might have a hearing, in which someone from unemployment will have either an in person or over the phone conversation with you, and someone from the company, and from there make a decision. If one party does not show up without a reasonable excuse, they forfeit the case. So if they dont show up to the call, you get benefits. The reason I explain all this to you is that in none of the scenarios above do you get hurt. Either youll get it or you wont. If you dont get it, then youre back where you started anyway, its not like youll have to pay or anything like that. Now, sometimes they will approve you immediately while they investigate, letting the employer gather proof, while you get unemployment checks or deposits. If this happens, dont spend the money, or at least dont rely on it. If your employer gets sufficient proof against you, and it is determined that you are not due unemployment benefits, youll owe it all back. So now you have 2 jobs. First is getting unemployment taken care of, and second is finding a new job. If you worked 40 hours a week at your old job, then youll work 40 hours a week finding a new job. Also might want to consider some overtime. Sorry youre going through this, and I wish you the best of luck. Human: They said theyre listing it as company initiated termination; thats not for cause, right?Assistant: Sounds like theyre saying the company terminated the employment, meaning you got fired, and not employee initiated termination which would be you quit.Basically what theyre saying is you got fired which we all know is true. What you have to do is prove that you were terminated without just cause. Just cause basically means they had a good reason to fire you, and it was generally your fault. Without just cause usually means it wasnt your fault. What you need to prove is that they really didnt have good reason to fire you. What is the company policy on take non pay leave? What is the termination policy? Did you get any warnings about your leave. Were all your leaves approved and you still got fired out of the blue?Btw, these are all just rough guidelines, IANAL, so this is just rough advice Human: I think I may have left out important parts of what she said. Your termination from the company will be listed as a company initiated termination and there will not be severance pay. Does the no severance part mean that they will probably fight unemployment? I dont get how they could justify it, theyve literally never complained to me about my attendance before today. My manager actually said today that the customer has been complaining about it to him, which is funny, cause the customer told me quite clearly today that he hadnt even noticed before before Friday, when my manager told him about it.edit: Im not sure about the company policy, and since theyve locked me out of the intranet, I dont know how to access it. Ive been charging to LWO a day or two a pay period for the past four pay periods and my manager has approved my time card every time without comment.Assistant: It sounds like the company is making it clear theyre firing you for being bad as apposed to laying you off or the like. This may actually be good for your case since they have to then really prove you broke rules.Make sure you mention that your manager approved all your leaves. This is big. Also mention you did not receive any warnings or notices from your manager that you were taking too many leaves. This is also big.Are you aware of a company handbook that might have these types of rules in there? Im not asking if you know it, just the existence of one. Also, how big is this company?Human: I have never seen an employee handbook, but Id be surprised if one didnt exist; Ive mostly gotten policy information by asking my manager, or more senior employees. I found out how to charge to LWO from a more senior employee. The company has just under 500 employees.  <response>: Ok, so here is something that is VERY important to relay: You were never made aware of company policy regarding LWO. You were never given the employee handbook, and company policies were only orally given to you by your manager. If they fight this and argue that you did get the company policy, ask for proof of this, such as a signature stating youve read and acknowledged it. Tell unemployment that your manager approved all LWO absences, and particularly without any warnings that this was against company policy or that you were breaking them. Tell them you assumed that if this were against company policy, your manager would have let you know. Also point out that you were never reprimanded or otherwise told to correct your behavior. These 2 things are very important. Remember, I am not a lawyer, and I do not work for unemployment, and it can differ from state to state, but I think you have a good case that this was a firing without just cause. You were never made aware of official company policy regarding LWO, you manager approved all of your LWO, and you were never warned, reprimanded, or otherwise told to stop taking LWO. Heres something that is a kicker, it may help if you have any proof that you were fired for this. I would hate for them to realize that they fired you without just cause, only to change it to something else. If you have proof of this, I would think you have a good case for unemployment. Best of luck to you. I hope everything turns out alright. Hopefully this will lead to something better. When I got fired out of the blue, I had to go through this whole ordeal, and it went to a hearing. It sucked, and it caused me a lot of stress. That being said, I ended up getting a job afterward that I would have otherwise never been made aware of, and has ended up putting me on a wonderful career path. 