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Avoiding a loss of jobless benefits

By Roni F. Noland, Globe Correspondent, 2/8/04

Need advice about managing your career or your workplace? The Job Doc can help. Our specialists can answer your questions on topics ranging from career transitions to management issues. E-mail queries to , or send letters to Job Doc, c/o the Boston Globe, P.O. Box 55819, Boston MA 02205-5819. Letters may be edited for clarity and length.

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I was recently laid off from a local business and am currently considering some part-time contract work for a Canadian company. The project would last about six to eight weeks. How would this affect my ability to collect unemployment after the contract work is over? Are there other issues and considerations of which I should be aware?

I assume that, at the time you were laid off from the local company, you filed a claim for unemployment insurance benefits and that you have an established claim on which you have been receiving benefits.

Depending on the amount of money you will be paid for your part-time contract work, you may not need to stop and restart your unemployment benefits. Individuals who are receiving benefits can work part time to supplement their income. The law allows individuals to earn up to one-third of their benefit rate and still receive their full weekly benefit amount. According to the Department of Employment and Training, gross earnings exceeding the one-third allowance result in a dollar-for-dollar reduction in unemployment benefits. At the completion of your temporary contract, you would resume collecting your full benefits.

Alternately, you could close your unemployment claim in order to accept temporary work, and then reopen your claim to resume receiving your benefits once the assignment is completed. There are no special regulations covering your part-time work for a non-US company.

An important consideration is how you will be paid on your contract job. If you will be paid in a lump sum at the conclusion of the job, and you are keeping your benefits claim open, you must determine the equivalent of your weekly salary, so that you can report that against your unemployment insurance claim each week. For example, if you were to be paid $3,000 at the completion of a six-week contract, then you must report $500 in earnings for each of the six weeks, so that the appropriate reduction in benefits will be made as the benefits are paid, even if you are not compensated for your part-time work until the end of the contract. As each situation is highly individual, I recommend that you discuss your options with your claims administrator, or visit www.detma.org.

Legislation passed last year requires individuals working through a temporary agency to contact the agency for a new assignment upon completion of the current assignment before filing for unemployment insurance benefits. Failure to do so can result in the loss of benefits. Additionally, keep in mind that the eligibility for unemployment insurance benefits is always based on the reason that the individual is no longer working at his most recent job. Someone who accepts a temporary job and gets fired or quits from that job can lose all or part of his unemployment insurance benefits.

No Labor Dept. oversight on vacation policies

I have a question about unused vacation time. In our company we are not allowed to carry over unused vacation time from year to year. If you don't use it, you lose it. What is the Department of Labor's policy on this? There are times when, due to staffing shortages, some employees are unable to use vacation time before the end of the year. I was wondering if you could advise me concerning this.

Policy concerning the carrying-over of unused vacation time is determined by the individual employer, or, if you are in a union, by collective bargaining.

The Department of Labor has no oversight on this issue. According to the agency's website, the Fair Labor Standards Act ''does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or holidays (federal or otherwise). These benefits are a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee's representative).'' The Fair Labor Standards Act does establish minimum wage, overtime pay, record-keeping, and child labor standards affecting full-time and part-time employees in the private sector, and in federal, state, and local governments. For more information, visit www.dol.gov.

It's unfair, but not illegal, that employees were unable to use their vacation time before the end of the year due to staffing shortages. You have no recourse concerning last year's unused vacation time. I suggest that you try to let it go. Otherwise, you may be tempted to get even with your employer and make up for your unused vacation time by taking frequent Monday and/or Friday sick days or engaging in your own one-person work slow-down. A more constructive plan of action would be for you to plan your vacation around what you project might be the organization's down times.

I assume that this is not part of a larger pattern of worker abuse by your employer but a one-time miscalculation of too much work and not enough staff. However, if you find that this seems to happen year after year, or if you are unable to get past your resentment at your employer for your missed vacation days, you may wish to seek employment elsewhere.

Show your potential for future promotion

I have been happily employed with the same company for several years. My track record is excellent and I have many friends here. The company recently went through a major reorganization where several new hires have been promoted over me. These newcomers are not well liked and based on hearsay from their prior employers will most likely fail over the long run. Should I alert the management team who initiated the promotions to this problem, or just wait it out and see?

You find yourself presented with an interesting dilemma: On the one hand, you have a stellar record of accomplishment with an employer you like. On the other, you have been passed over for promotion and are concerned that the new people who have been brought in as managers are incompetent.

If you speak out about the new staff, your concerns likely will be perceived as the grumbling of a disgruntled employee who was passed over for promotion. However, if you feel that the new employees could be exposing the company to genuine risk, voicing your objections might be the prudent thing to do.

Think before you speak, however. Relying only on hearsay or presumption could backfire and make you the unwitting target. Worry less about the actions of the newcomers - if they are truly incompetent, this will be revealed soon enough - and focus more on your own actions.

Although it sounds as if you are popular socially, you may not be seen as a leader by the management team, which could be why some of the new hires were promoted over you. But if you are interested in being seen as management material, the very situation that you find yourself in could be your ticket to promotion.

By developing positive relationships with the new management team, you can showcase yourself as a mature and capable employee. Perhaps you could even offer your services to the relatively new management team as a seasoned adviser who is familiar with the corporate culture.

Employees who offer to coach or mentor new employees are often valued for their leadership abilities. This can benefit you in several ways. You will be demonstrating your potential for future promotion, forming alliances within your company, and demonstrating that you are a team player. You also could be helping to protect the company's - and, of course, your own - bottom line.

Employee e-mail privacy is limited

I recently resigned from a recruiting firm after working there for six years. During my time there, I became aware that the company continued to keep open and monitor the e-mail accounts of former employees, some for as long as three years. Obviously the nature of the business is such that these e-mails might produce job orders or qualified candidates, but the firm also read their personal e-mails. What is the legality of this practice? Now that I have left, the thought of my former employermonitoring personal e-mails that might be addressed to my former address is troubling.

If the computer that you use at work does not have a screensaver that reads, ''Big Brother Is Watching You,'' it should.

Any and all stored e-mail communications on your employer's computers or server are the property of the company. Recent court cases have upheld that employer rights regarding e-mail trump individual privacy rights. In addition, most companies have a policy that spells out this limited expectation of employee privacy.

Employers are justified in monitoring employee e-mail, according to Marc Greenbaum, professor of law at Suffolk University Law School, since ''e-mail has proven to be a powerful tool of sexual, racial, and other forms of workplace harassment.'' In addition, he said, employers are concerned legitimately about ''e-mail's capacity to distribute trade secrets, intellectual property, and other confidential business information.''

The latter may be why your former employer continues to monitor employee e-mail long after the employees have left the organization. In the short-term, after an employee leaves, the account may be monitored for communication with clients or customers who were not aware of the employee's departure. Alternatively, it may simply be inertia on the employer's part, and your question may motivate IT directors to remove departed employees' stored and moribund e-mail accounts.

If you remain concerned about the possibility of your employer monitoring personal e-mails after you've left the company, then make sure to announce to everyone in your address book that your e-mail address has changed, and provide them with an alternate address.

The message for all employees is clear: if you do not want your employer to read something, then don't write it and send it at work, especially not using your company e-mail account. Needless to say, all job-hunting-related activity should be conducted from your home or personal computer.

''Whether an e-mail or a document that winds up on a terminal's hard drive or a server's hard drive, an employee will have little, if any, recourse if the employer discovers something it considers improper that was generated by the employee,'' says Greenbaum.

Be aware that many employers have systems that can track Internet usage as well. Think before you spend your lunch hour surfing the Internet; make certain that you are comfortable with the prospect of your employer knowing every site you visit. If not, wait until you get home to use the Internet for anything other than clearly defined work-related research.

Roni F. Noland is a career counselor and coach in private practice. She can be reached at .

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