Caterpillar cutting 20,000 jobs on the Peoria.com Forums - Page 2

I'm worried also.

I have worked for 30 years now and have never left one job without having another one lined up, with the exception of leaving the service-which I did have a plan to go to school. Then I got caught up in life and started working, which became more important than school.

I worry about it one moment and then have a "what the hell can I do about it.." attitude the next.

I think I may start drinking again...but I'm worried that I won't be able to afford it...

I can imagine that this makes for a bad work environment for those left. They don't know what is going to happen from one day to the next.

My hubby was completely Caterpillar trained with only associate degrees (he has 2). It won't be easy for him to find something else if he loses his job. If he does find something it will be at a fraction of the salary.

It depends. This is my untrained, unresearched understanding:

If you are fired for "disciplinary" reasons, like getting caught surfing the net, showing up late too often, stuff like that, you are generally denied benefits. Same goes for if you quit. If you walk out on your job, you can't have it.

If you are laid off due to lack of work, then you can have benefits.

As with anything, there are grey areas.

If you are fired

oooh.. It's different here then. In Florida if you’re fired you get unemployment unless they can prove gross insubordination. But then again, in Florida they don’t need a reason to fire you. It’s a right to work state. Or a right to not work I should say.

It's easier to get unemployment if you get fired than if you 'quit'.

The Company has an option to challenge benifits. The state will set up a phone hearing for both parties (there is paperwork that goes back and forth with the HR Dept that I don't know about).

The judge will determine the validity of the claim. I have been on the company side of one of these because I terminated the individual and due to the nature of the termination, and knowledge of another job, we cahallenged and won. Not because we had all of our ducks in a row, but because he didn't bother to call in either time-yes they gave him 2 chances.

More often than not, the employee wins out in these cases, I'm told that they have to be pretty blagrant to be denied.