A lay off is generally broad in scope. A department might get laid off.
Firings are usually with cause and individual. You are fired for showing up late every day. You’re laid off when they simply don’t need you anymore.
This varies from state to state across the US and probably only applies here, but if you’re fired with cause, you generally don’t get unemployment benefits. If you’re laid off you might get a severance on top of unemployment.
Particularly shitty companies will always fire as many people as they can prior to a lay off. A big part of HR’s job at these organizations is making sure they have a case to fire as many people as possible at any given time. If you’ve ever worked in any call center in the US, you’ve been subjected to this, knowingly or not. They’ll document a handful of even the slightest grievances and make sure they have two in the chamber at any given time for any given employee, so if it looks like they need to get rid of a lot of people in the near future they’ll start digging for a third infraction.
The specifics will vary by jurisdiction. The state I live in, you can collect unemployment if fired but it has to be determined that you were not fired for noncompliance with workplace policies or illegal actions. For example if you stole from the cash register and got caught and fired you would not be able to collect unemployment. But if you were fired for poor performance you can receive unemployment
I learned this after a recent workplace decided to make up performance reasons to fire me. The state opened an investigation to determine if unemployment benefits should be paid out, which involved asking both myself and the previous employer about the stated reasons for the discharge, if any written or verbal warnings were given, etc. Hilariously my old employer dropped the entire line of reasoning and just said “it didn’t work out” when the investigator for the state spoke with them. I also then learned that the maximum unemployment benefit in my state is only $1200/month which won’t cover most folks rents so that’s practically useless!
What’s the difference between being laid off and being fired?
You het fired for being bad at work, coming in late, etc.
You get laid off for “we don’t wanna pay you anymore.”
A lay off is generally broad in scope. A department might get laid off.
Firings are usually with cause and individual. You are fired for showing up late every day. You’re laid off when they simply don’t need you anymore.
This varies from state to state across the US and probably only applies here, but if you’re fired with cause, you generally don’t get unemployment benefits. If you’re laid off you might get a severance on top of unemployment.
Particularly shitty companies will always fire as many people as they can prior to a lay off. A big part of HR’s job at these organizations is making sure they have a case to fire as many people as possible at any given time. If you’ve ever worked in any call center in the US, you’ve been subjected to this, knowingly or not. They’ll document a handful of even the slightest grievances and make sure they have two in the chamber at any given time for any given employee, so if it looks like they need to get rid of a lot of people in the near future they’ll start digging for a third infraction.
Lay offs aren’t related to your behaviour. Just that they cannot afford to keep you.
“they cannot afford to keep you.” Oh they almost certainly CAN. They just don’t want to.
You can’t collect unemployment if you get fired.
The specifics will vary by jurisdiction. The state I live in, you can collect unemployment if fired but it has to be determined that you were not fired for noncompliance with workplace policies or illegal actions. For example if you stole from the cash register and got caught and fired you would not be able to collect unemployment. But if you were fired for poor performance you can receive unemployment
I learned this after a recent workplace decided to make up performance reasons to fire me. The state opened an investigation to determine if unemployment benefits should be paid out, which involved asking both myself and the previous employer about the stated reasons for the discharge, if any written or verbal warnings were given, etc. Hilariously my old employer dropped the entire line of reasoning and just said “it didn’t work out” when the investigator for the state spoke with them. I also then learned that the maximum unemployment benefit in my state is only $1200/month which won’t cover most folks rents so that’s practically useless!
Goddamn that’s low. At first I read that as $1200/week, which would be the highest in the nation.
I also got termed for no reason but my state maxes out at $875 per week, low considering the cost of living here.