Fired Over False Gossip? You Can Qualify For Oklahoma Unemployment. 

Video Transcribed: I am the paralegal that assists the Oklahoma Unemployment Expert attorney, and he handles all the unemployment appeals at this firm. So, I got something in the mail today. So, I want to talk to you guys about this case, of course, before we open the envelope. You guys know the routine. So, let’s start with our client.

Our client worked for a doctor’s office here in town, and she’s been working there for a very long time. She has friends there. Well, she goes into the office one day, and she was terminated. She’s really confused on why and no joke, this is what they tell her.

The employer stated that the boss heard from a friend that works with her at this doctor’s office that she was talking bad about the boss. She said, “I’ve never said anything bad about you.” And she just kind of sits there and they said, “Well, you’re terminated,” let her go.

So our client tried to file for unemployment, and she got a letter stating she was denied due to being unprofessional, talking about her boss, and text messaging the other employees that work for the doctor’s office and telling everyone she was let go for this and everything else and causing drama. So that’s why they terminated her, and that’s what they stated to the appeal board in their letter.

So our client called us and said, “Look, I need some help. I don’t understand any of this. Can you explain the process and tell me how I can get you guys to help me out with this?” So I went over everything with her, discussed the case, and explained the process of filing for unemployment. And then she decided to come in and we got our hearing date.

I think it was two weeks, maybe? Yeah, about two weeks later we got it. Well, during this hearing, the employer was stating that she heard her. Now her story changed. Now the boss heard her say something bad about her and has proof through text message that she was still talking bad about her with other coworkers at this doctor’s office.

Well, our argument was nothing was ever said. As a matter of a fact, we pulled all of our text messages and entered them as exhibits stating that none of that was true. Yes, there was conversation about her, but it wasn’t like she was talking bad about her. It was saying, “Yeah, the old boss came back. You know, it’s a little bit different, but it’ll take some getting used to.”

But other than that, that’s all that was said. Nothing was said bad about her. And I’m sure we’ve all said stuff about our boss, regardless where you work. Something does come out, and I think what happened was she was talking to her friend, which is her coworker at the time, and someone overheard it and took it completely.

You know, we expressed that to the appeal board. We’re like, “Look, our client’s worked there for a long time and never had an issue. She’s never even been wrote up. So I think a lot of this is just misunderstanding.” And the employer’s argument was, “Well, it’s very unprofessional. It’s misconduct.”

 

And we stopped her right there and said, “There’s no misconduct. She’s never late for work. She never cause …” You know, nothing was ever enough for misconduct at all for her. I was just as confused as our client because there was nothing enough to terminate her in the beginning.

So I’m really excited to open this envelope and see what it says. So let’s open it up and see it is. I apologize. My glasses keep falling. So let’s get this done. And she got it. I am really excited for this client. She’s going to be really excited as well.

I do want to say a couple things. Everyone says things to other coworkers because coworkers become friends. We’re with our coworkers more than our families because we’re with them eight hours every day, Monday through Friday, and a weekend’s only two days … which should be a law. Should be a law against to working on Fridays.

We should all start that. But anyways, you know, you get comfy with people. Your friends and your coworkers are all one, and if you make a joke to a coworker and someone overhears it and they think that you’re serious and that they took it a different way and run to the boss, it can cause a lot of problems.

As a friend to you guys, always be careful what you say to coworkers because at the end of the day, no one has your back like you do. And it’s sad that we can’t trust people. I’m not saying you can’t. But I am saying just be careful at the workplace on what you say to other people because someone else may overhear you and just like our client, it got her terminated because of that reason. And she loved her job. She loved her boss. She thought her boss as friend as well. You guys have to be careful with that.

[Protect_Benefits]