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What are my options? Is my job description legally binding?

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CPryor84

Junior Member
What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Colorado

In June 2014, I was sent an e-mail from an employer saying their company was hiring an associate and to review the attached Job Description to see if I was interested in applying. The Job Description was attached to the e-mail in a .docx format and was rather informal. The sheet literally only listed "Job Description/Duties: Data Entry (Quickbooks, pay bills, accounts receivable, and accounts payable), Human Resources (recruiting, pricing for subcontractors, hiring subcontractors, maintaining payroll), Estimating (measuring buildings, writing up estimates), and Production (ordering materials, material and sub pricing, writing flyers for customers)". After reviewing the job description, I sent in my application, r�sum�, and other necessary documents. Just a week later I was hired. In September 2014, I was forced to travel to a job-site to manage crews on a project about 3 hours away. In my job description and what I agreed to, it never stated that I would have to manage subcontract crews as I was hired as office personnel. While in a company car, I was hit head-on at 65mph by someone on the highway. Thanks to the Good Lord, I have been recovering and survived the accident. However, doctors have put work restrictions on my work status reports. The restrictions initially included 4-6 hours per day and absolutely no travel out of state. In December 2014, the owner of the company I work for signed a document stating that due to the hourly work restrictions from the automobile accident, the company was going to hire a full-time individual to fill the void. I also signed this document. The office individual was hired and now I am cleared to work full-time. Since the accident, I've been forced into a project management role that was a position that I never applied for, nor agreed to. Now I'm being told that the company has too much money wrapped up into administration, so I am needed by the company to work on the road as a project manager. Is the e-mail that was sent as a job description (for the duties listed above) a legally binding document? Are my only options to continue to listen to their role changes and do my job, or quit? In my mind, most companies that are overstaffed in a particular department would simply lay off that individual, but it seems as if this company is refusing to lay me off and only force me into a position that is not feasible for me in order to avoid turning it into unemployment. Without another job lined up, it is difficult to grasp the idea of quitting without money coming in, so I feel that I am backed into a corner. What are my options here? Any suggestions or legal advice would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

CP
 


Chyvan

Member
In my mind, most companies that are overstaffed in a particular department would simply lay off that individual, but it seems as if this company is refusing to lay me off and only force me into a position that is not feasible for me in order to avoid turning it into unemployment.

If you're content with the UI, you don't have to do the new job duties. Think of it in terms that you were fired from the job that you had, and you are refusing the job it is going to become as in "new work." At that point, unless the new job was considered suitable employment, you'd get your UI and can look for something more to your liking.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
Unless they are unbelievably poorly written, a job description is never a legally binding document. It is always the right of your employer to change your job duties.
 

CPryor84

Junior Member
Thanks for the responses. I am not necessarily content with UI, but I do not feel that I have many options since he has replaced my position that I agreed to and is now forcing me to be on the road the majority of the time. That's something we discussed in the initial interview, but told him that if it's once in a great while, I would help out. It's much more than once in a great while.

As for the job description, yes, it was poorly written. Extremely. As in my initial post, the job description was in a Word document typed exactly how I typed it. Nothing more and nothing less. Nothing in there that says "duties subject to change". Shame on me for accepting a position with a company that is so unprofessional.
 

Chyvan

Member
Nothing in there that says "duties subject to change".

Even if it did say that, the US DOL has a very good publication that says it wouldn't allow an employer to force you into unsuitable work or forfeit or UI.

http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/UIPL41-98.cfm

http://www.ows.doleta.gov/dmstree/uipl/uipl_pre75/uipl_984.htm
 

Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
Even if it did say that, the US DOL has a very good publication that says it wouldn't allow an employer to force you into unsuitable work or forfeit or UI.

http://wdr.doleta.gov/directives/attach/UIPL41-98.cfm

http://www.ows.doleta.gov/dmstree/uipl/uipl_pre75/uipl_984.htm

The OP is not claiming that he is being put in to "unsuitable work". The OP is simply not satisfied with his new job duties, but it sounds like he has already started doing those duties. If he quits now, there is only a very, very slim chance that UI would be approved. See that silhouette in the distance...look carefully, way out there, heading away in to the sunset. That's Slim.
 

Chyvan

Member
I am needed by the company to work on the road as a project manager.

I'm not so sure that he is currently doing the job because he was sick after all, but that is a factor.

is now forcing me to be on the road the majority of the time.

Transportation it terms of time, distance and commuting expenses are one of the many factors used in a suitability determination. I don't think he's unhappy with the job duties. I just don't think he wants a job where he's in a car all day driving his car into the ground.
 

cbg

I'm a Northern Girl
I just don't think he wants a job where he's in a car all day driving his car into the ground.

What he does and does not want may or may not be relevant to whether the job is "suitable". I do not disagree that a change in job duties, or transportation, can be factors and I'm absolutely not saying that unemployment is out (assuming he has not started the new position) but I sure hope the OP doesn't get the idea that "I don't want to" automatically makes the job unsuitable for unemployment purposes.
 

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