Renaissance Fair.
Here’s one in my state: http://www.texrenfest.com/
Yep.
You are eligible for unemployment if you are part of a lay off, not if you quit or are fired for cause.
Renaissance Faire. Imagine the last place on Earth where you might find Eve.
The Republican National Convention as a delegate? 
Thanks for enlightening me.
That’s scary.
Renaissance Faire, They are a mixture of outdoor fair/crafts fair with costumes ranging from Excalibur to the Tudors. They present a great opportunity to drink in the woods, act, and cos play. Some people love them, some people don’t. At the library I work inviting people to attend a Ren Faire would be interpretted as “Hey, guys I volunteer to be the groups’ designated driver for this week’s trip,” and would actually be a good way to make friends. Of course, I work with people whose hobbies include fencing, weaving their own cloth, community theater, etc.
I don’t consider this workplace shunning. She probably sees this group having fun and wants in, but people want to hang out with their friends. Just because she is at the same workplace does not mean she is a friend. I bet if she looked around she’d find many people not included in the group. She’s not interested in hanging out with them because they’re not the cool kids.
I actively deflect people who become too friendly at work. I want to keep a distance. I don’t want to go to lunch regularly (I work out at lunch). I don’t want to hang out after work (I have a family and like to decompress). I don’t want to socialize on the weekend (I have many other dear friends who I already don’t have enough time for).
I’m social in the workplace, but I really don’t want to hang out with most people I work with. There’s nothing wrong with them, I just value my solitude more than making small talk over lunch.
Look, the social politics you learned in high school don’t change once you enter the workforce. And in fact, they probably get worse because you have real shit on the line like raises and promotions.
That said, if you work at a place where you clearly aren’t a good fit or you don’t get along with the bulk of your coworkers, you might want to look for another place to work. OTOH, it also helps if you have a life outside of work so your entire self-worth isn’t tied to the opinions of some group of people you were arbitrarily tossed in with.
I would imagine she thought they were a couple of rude, uncouth, dumbass hicks.
Yes, it happens in the workplace. Being shunned is a hostile work environment.
Yeah, I imagine so. And she was too low on the totem pole to feel comfortable enough to rant about them to the rest of us (either that or she was too polite).
I should say she went to another lab and ended up being hated there, too. And unlike in my lab, most of the people in her new lab were guys. So she spawned equal-opportunity hatred.
Oh, so you really fucked her over, even after she left your employ. Well done! You should have an extra kitten for lunch for that one!
Kind of this for me, too. I’m not that outgoing, though I’m friendly and a happy smartass; a couple-few times a year I might want to go hang out for a night, but I really don’t want to make such a thing of it that NOT going is taken as some kind of sign. So I usually don’t bother. I just don’t want to start something I’m not likely to finish, if that makes sense. The place I work at is in a small valley, and EVERYONE KNOWS EVERYONE ELSE, almost literally. Most people at work are RELATED to other people at work; it’s pretty inbred. Sure, I wouldn’t mind being invited to play Bunko, and it looks like fun! but I’m certainly not offended if nobody asks; I’m a grown up, if I really want to join something, I’ll ask to do it, and not get offended by a negative reply. Everyone’s comfort zone is different, and I’ll respect other folks’ as long as they respect mine.
I’m not seeing the fucking here. People weren’t picking on her, or leaving her in the lurch job-wise, they were just treating her as a co-worker and nothing more, so there’s really dick-all kayaker could have done for the situation. It’s not like ordering your employees to like someone and be their friend ever actually works, after all. Since she quit (and wasn’t forced out), she wasn’t eligible for unemployment, so fighting it wasn’t inappropriate.
As for the reference check…well, I don’t know what you wanted him to say, really. He certainly couldn’t lie and gush about how wonderful this person was and how everyone in the whole office adored her and misses her desperately. And if he went into the details of how she came whining about how people don’t like her, that could get problematic on a lot of levels. There’s a reason most employers will only give you employment dates and salary information.
Is it normal for the employer to file a “denial request”, whatever that is?
If you quit and try to claim benefits anyway, yeah. Same as if you get fired for cause and try to claim benefits anyway.
Pretty normal, and good business when the claim is unfounded. In most states, an employer’s unemployment insurance premium is figured based on total payroll and previous claims. If people who are eligible for unemployment file then an ethical employer won’t contest their claims. But when somebody who isn’t eligible files an unemployment claim, it’s only prudent to contest the claim - not doing so has the potential to cost them money.
I go to work to earn money. I have a life outside of work. I don’t have to like the people I work with and they don’t have to like me. It’s why America is great. You can like or dislike who you want and vice versa.
As long as I get my paycheck and my coworkers are civil to me, everything else is gravy
Allow me to open your eyes. First of all she complained about a social situation at work that she found intolerable for whatever reason and he said it was not his concern. Fair enough, it may not have been, but it show indifference at the very least.
Unable to stay on the job, she quits. She applies for unemployment insurance. Well as a general rule people who quit are not given unemployment insurance, the unemployment is considered voluntary, no matter how harrowing the circumstances that prompted the quitting, though there are exceptions like “hostile workplace” etc., which I think are fairly rarely decided in the employees’ favor. But I think it can fairly be argued that kayaker is at least partially responsible for the situation, due to his indifference. It would not have killed him financially to let her have unemployment insurance. Granted, the law was on his side, but there’s also morality, which is generally what debates on message boards are all about. I think kayaker fails the test morally.
But it does not stop there. He gets a call for a reference for the woman. When he learns it’s a personal reference and not “did she work there” he laughs, essentially stabbing her in the back, killing that job opportunity for her. What the hell, kayaker, you hate her that much? Granted, she was a fool to use you as a personal reference. But you blew her off when she came to you for help with her social problem, you denied her unemployment insurance AND you stab her in the back when she uses you as a reference, foolish though she was to do so? That’s some sick shit, man.
I mean, what horrible things did the woman do to deserve this? She apparently could do her work all right, no complaints there, but she didn’t get along with her co-workers which led her to first appeal to the boss for help, then when that was not forthcoming, to quit. So she applied for unemployment insurance, and looked for work. What a bitch!
You seriously expect an employer to be a nice guy?
How would the pyramids been built?
Unemployment insurance is not free money. The rate that an employer pays into the system is variable depending on how often his ex-employees make claims. If she was granted unemployment, his rates would go up which means he would have less money to pay his other employees. If she gets unemployment, then the state has less money to pay for other claims. If she needed the money, she should have stayed at her job until she found a new job.
Unemployment insurance is not there to pay for people who don’t like their job. It’s there for people who were suddenly let go to help them transition to a new job. If she quit on her own, then she should have planned ahead to make sure she could financially make the transition before resigning.