thanks unemployment insurance....

thanks for friggin' nothing!!

dear blog,

i've missed you blog. i need you more than you know - i can't punch walls because i'm the one who has to repair sheet rock (lol)

when my hubby got laid off in november 2009 he filed for unemployment.

to make a short story long - he filed for unemployment and got denied. the employer (a corporate guy whose never met hubby) made it sound like my hubby was a criminal by saying he "violated code of conduct and ethics" bullshit! (what he did wrong was install the hardwood flooring he sold to a customer and she was so happy with his work she told the corporate office. bad idea. the bosses knew he did floors. he was doing it before he got the job there and two different assistant managers even helped him on several occasions but the company hired a contractor to work directly with the stores and hubby was undercutting the contractor. not on purpose - just because he has no overhead costs) so thanks for the nice compliment lady person, but......

well... we got the denial letter from the dept of labor stating you can't collect unemployment when you do something to get yourself fired. ummm...what?? yeah, we're all in a state of confusion now. too innocent for our own good i guess. per the instructions on the back of the letter we requested an appeal hearing...if only to make sure people didn't think hubby was some criminal, ya know? we kept going online to the "certify for benefits" page every week...but then when we got the denial letter - we stopped. who files for benefits when the dept of labor denies you? insert stupidity here...err...i mean innocence. well, like i said, we filed for an appeal and got one...six months later. yeah, you read that right - six months later. that's also six months of NOT certifying for claims/benefits.

so hubby and his ex-boss (the store manager hubby worked with) go to the appeal hearing and the judge sided with hubby. yaaaaay!! she said it was not right that he was fired because he was never given any kind of warning he'd be fired if he installed floors. they just BOOM!! fired him on one ladies raving compliment... (and this side job is something he's been doing for 14 years - before and during his employment there).

so now we're thinking, and we were told, that we'd get back (retroactive) pay for the six months he was unemployment but received no benefits. wow...that's so awesome!!! hubbies not working, we have hospital bills going on our credit report cuz we can't pay them, had to cancel cable and the ymca and cut out all kinds of things to keep from drowning and we're gonna get a retroactive unemployment check...???!!??! wrong. oh, so wrong. and it's wrong because of MY doing. if we had been going on the webpage and certifying for benefits the whole time, the whole six months...from denial letter to appeal hearing, we'd have gotten a check for nearly $7,000 (after taxes) but because we didn't - we got a check for $650. i have screwed us over...by my own hands. :o( :::::sigh:::::

it really sucks. i found out that we can write a letter requesting credit that we certify for, so i did...but nothing's guaranteed. and it's probalby just a formality thing - the friggen letter even said (after i found it and actually thoroughly read it this time) that you have to continue to certify to protect your benefits. just makes me feel like we can win for winning..and losing.

on a good note though, we were able to use the $600 to buy me a new (old) truck. and inside this $1,500 GMC, i found a $600 watch...that'll probalby send back cuz i'd be pissed if i left that watch in a stupid old truck and sold it.

thanks blog. i love you!! i'm going to bed now - i fell asleep putting our little one to bed and woke up at midnight...now i'll never get back to sleep and i need to make a flower birthday cake for the birthday boy's (aka hubby) birthday tomorrow.