You may have to defend your position to a higher level of management and then to a panel of managers, human resource staff members, and a staff person whom you have chosen. It is important that you go through the grievance procedure to prove to a future hearing officer, judge, or referee that you have exhausted all remedies available to you through your employer. You also should file for unemployment benefits immediately. If the hospital contests the unemployment benefits, you may have to go to a hearing to prevail, but in all probability you would be eligible even though you were terminated. Remember, no matter why you are unemployed, always apply for unemployment benefits, even if you have been fired for cause.
Many terminations are the result of personality conflicts and have nothing to do with competence.
State unemployment statutes require that in order to get the full award of benefits, the individual must be unemployed through no fault of his or her own. Being terminated because of a personality conflict meets the criteria of being unemployed through no fault of your own. Voluntary layoffs also come under this heading. If you are terminated for cause, there is a section in the statute that states that in determining whether or not the work has been performed in a substandard manner, the length of time the worker has been performing the work satisfactorily and the industry standard for such work will be considered. No work will be considered substandard that comes within the area of reasonable mistakes and errors normally made by workers engaging in the same or similar work.