What's the consensus? This is my first time being laid off in my career. Any guidance helps.
8 replies (most recent on top)
Why wouldn't you file? Your employer pays into unemployment insurance as part of the payroll taxes they pay, and you get to cash in when they let you go.
No employer is going to give you a step-by-step guide to apply for unemployment. Employers have to pay more into unemployment taxes if they have too many former employees on unemployment, so it's in their best interest for you not to be on it.
I applied for unemployement the day my last paycheck from Nike hit. There is a waiting period of (a week I think) then you will start receiving benefits. There are paperwork hurdles you need to jump through but nothing too taxing. They will ask if you want to have taxes taken out of your paycheck and I encourage you to do so.
One thing I did as I wanted to make sure I had paperwork back up is any and every person I talked to, job I applied for, looking at indeed.com, linkedin, etc....any potential for job searching I documented. If you get audited you will want to make sure you have all your paperwork to reference.
I went out of the country during one of my weeks - I still had facetime meetings/job interviews while I was gone, but when I applied for my benefits they were able to trace the ip address and they denied my benefits that week. Just be smart. :)
Not HR. I worked in Global Tech and was laid off in May. I've been fielding the same question about unemployment from many of my friends who were laid off in June, so I thought I'd copy and paste the same info here when I saw the thread.
Thank you, and you're welcome to the folks who found the information helpful.
Great post from @ae!
Also worth mentioning (so it's not a surprise come April) - unemployment is taxed. You'll get a form 1099-G in the mail, so you might want to ask if they will withhold taxes for you (if they aren't automatically). Also be aware of Safe Harbor to avoid penalties for underpayment if your calcs are a bit off...etc.etc.
@ax they’re probably in HR.
wow @ae!!
amazing writeup that should be in a Nike exit packet or something.
way to be really helpful, hats off to you for real
You can apply for unemployment the week after you fall off the Nike payroll. Once you are off the payroll, the State of Oregon can verify that you are eligible for unemployment benefits. So, once you get your last check, apply the next week. (You don't need to wait until after you get your severance, which usually shows up about 2 weeks after your final paycheck.)
Once you are eligible, you can file for unemployment online at https://unemployment.oregon.gov/. Once you file that initial claim, you are required to apply for at least 2 jobs per week and do 3 additional work search activities (which can be meeting with a career counselor, updating resumes, etc.). For me, I just apply for a minimum of 5 jobs a week and keep copies of every application acknowledgement email in case I am audited. You'll log all of these activities online at https://frances.oregon.gov/ once you have an account. You don't get paid for the first week that you apply - it's called a waiting week, where the state verifies everything and gets you set up. After that first week, you'll file a claim weekly in Frances, and you get paid up to $872 a week for a maximum of 26 weeks. Claim weeks run from Sunday to the following Saturday, and I usually file my weekly claim the first thing on Sunday mornings.
As part of this process, you'll also be required to create a profile in imatchskills.com and to meet with a career counselor at a WorkSource office in person to verify your identity (with a passport and driver's license) and talk about your plan to get a new job. This is also pretty painless, other than the wait time at the WorkSource office, which was 3 hours for me to have a 10 minute conversation with the counselor.
As the previous poster said, you've already paid for unemployment benefits as part of your taxes. Therefore, there is no shame in using them... when you are unemployed. That's what it's there for, and it will help soften the landing financially.
Sorry for the unfortunate impact, it su-ks for sure. It's a no brainer to file for unemployment. There's virtually no downside and it's money you earned through taxes paid. There are some paperwork hurdles that anyone has to go through to apply and at a certain point I believe you have to show you applied to a certain number of jobs per week to maintain benefits. Those are pretty small tasks compared to the thousands of dollars you can receive in unemployment benefits.