This is going to be somewhat long because I need to give a little bit of background.
My husband and I used to work in office for a company in Florida. We moved states, my husband was kept on remote, and I quit because my position at the time was not a remote type position. Fast forward a year and a half later, and they rehired me as strictly a remote employee, with both of us living in a completely different state than the company. I have been working remotely for the company now since June 2022, and my husband has been working remotely for the company since May 2021.
Friday we both got an email with several “options” to “retain our positions.” First, he goes on to say that he is having a hard time financially paying employee salaries, that the company (a very small company), is struggling, etc. For some background info we already had a feeling that he was struggling (he bought the company in January 2023 from the previous owner) because we have been paid late several times, and our health insurance was unpaid and inactive last month and they had to get that sorted out. He then goes on to give us 3 options:
1) Relocate (at our expense) back to Florida and work in office
2) Start our own company (at our expense and with no help from him..he’s just giving us the “opportunity” to provide our services to him by creating and running our own company, approximately a 50k start up cost)
Or
3) Work as subcontractors “when he has work available”
He thinks and has stated that by giving us these options that he is not laying us off and we will not be able to collect unemployment if we can’t find other work by the September 30th deadline he gave us.
Option 1 – I told him relocation at our expense is impossible, we cannot afford to move our family to Florida, and have no desire to. It is my opinion that he is “constructively dismissing” us. We were hired remote and are not hybrid employees and have not worked in the office. How can he say we are quitting if we do not report to the office by October 1st? NOT EVEN TO MENTION no one in their right mind would relocate at their expense for a company that has admitted it is struggling to stay afloat. I feel this is changing the terms of our employment and our contract with him.
Option 2 – Not an option. This is not a full time position, we would be out 50k to “provide him services” that currently he isn’t even needing because they are struggling for work so badly.
Option 3 – Also not an option. He barely has work to give us now, we certainly couldn’t live off whatever breadcrumbs he may throw our way once or twice a month if they happen to get enough work to send to us. This is also not a full time 40 hr job with health benefits, it is effectively self employment. We would also have to purchase about 8k worth of computers/supplies and the programs required to complete our jobs if not provided by our employer like we are provided with now. For what I feel would be very little to no work as a subcontractor.
So, in your opinion, are we being laid off (we have been given a deadline of September 30th), or can he really say he’s not eliminating our positions?! These options don’t seem like options at all. I also don’t see how us relocating to Florida to work in office would help a company that is already struggling to pay our salaries. Thanks in advance for your help! If you have any questions to clarify let me know and I will do my best to clarify for you.