Basically, title.
Last Friday, the unemployment office called me asking for info on why I was fired (it was due to a poor choice of words, there was no conduct policy). I explained to the state exactly what transpired. Long and short, I said something stupid, and 3 days later after calling this coworker out for being checked out on the clock he decided he was offended by what I said. When my manager called me that Sunday to tell me I was 86ed, I begged for a chance to come in and explain myself. I was able to do that, and I walked away from that meeting feeling like I’d be getting my job back. The next day, I received an email with my termination of insurance. No one ever officially told me that I was fired I only received the forwarded email about termination of insurance. When I asked my manager about this, they said this coworker said I’d been drinking on the job and that there was a 0 tolerance. This is true, we all drank on the job. I did as much with my manager.
So, moving ahead I filed for unemployment. It took 3 weeks but my claim was denied. However, before the claim denial, but after I’d been interviewed, my manager (who I was friends with outside of work) texted me asking if I’d applied for unemployment. I said I had, they then stated the state was asking for documentation and that the company didn’t have any. They went on to explain that they did me a lot of favors by not keeping any official records as we are/were friends outside of work.
I’m obviously appealing, and I’m not terribly concerned about if my manager gets in trouble for it or now. I’m fighting for $499/wk while he just received a $5,000 bonus as well as a trip to Europe as well as a 20% pay rise.
My question is, how can I most effectively appeal this decision? How can I word it to explain the conversation and how the lack of documentation should work in my favor. In Texas, I have to provide new information that hasn’t been brought up yet.
In this same text string, my manager stated that they knew enough about enough people to burn the place down. I encouraged him to do it because fuck a company being sold for $100mil and fighting $1996/mo for 5 months of unemployment. I only bring this up because should this go to a hearing I’ll have to provide full and complete information.
Any advice is appreciated.