When to Fight Your Ex-Employee's Benefits Claim

The law varies from state to state, but ex-employees aren't usually entitled to claim benefits if they either voluntarily resigned their position with your company or their employment was terminated for repeated willful misconduct or insubordination over a period of time. If you've created a solid paper trail that this ex-employee was insubordinate over a period of time, you have every right to challenge her application for benefits.

But that doesn't mean you should.

If you do challenge the application, there are two things you should know. First, the person who determines whether your ex-employee gets benefits is a low-level government employee, not a judge, an arbitrator or a professional mediator. Since in most states benefits are denied only for compelling reasons, even if you make a solid case that the ex-employee lied on her application, your ex-employee probably will get benefits anyway.

Second, your conversations with the labor department will be recorded -- either by tape or by a court stenographer who'll take down every word you and the ex-employee say during the proceedings.

The good news: You can use the recording as evidence if the ex-employee sues you for discrimination. You can claim, for example, that "We consistently said she was terminated for wrongful, repeated misconduct."

The bad news: If you say something extremely stupid, such as "This [expletive] wouldn't follow orders," the ex-employee can use the recording as proof that your office environment was hostile to females and that the real reason you terminated her was to create a "boys' club" with no girls allowed.