I was recently terminated from my previous employer due to having to leave the state for an extended period of time (just under two weeks) due to the death of a close family member. I informed the owner of the company that I would have to leave the following day and she simply said,"OK." The following Monday I called to inform her of when I would be returning the following week. I told her I would be back by Tuesday the following week and she said she would really like for me to return on Monday instead. I said I would do my best, but could not promise that I could return Monday.

I was ultimately terminated due to not returning on Monday. A letter was delivered to my home via courier stating that because I did not return Monday, as she would have liked, my "services were no longer needed." There was no mention of excessive absenteeism in the letter.

I filed for unemployment and was denied as she stated to them I was terminated for "excessive absenteeism." She stated to them I was warned about absences and told my job was in jeopardy. The previous never happened. I was never in the course of my employment warned, written or verbal, about absences or that my job was in jeopardy.

In the state of Indiana, "excessive absenteeism" is a qualifying event to deny unemployment. My question then is if I was never warned about absences and there was no uniformly enforced rule regarding absences within the company, how would I go about proving to the administrative law judge that my absences were not "excessive?" There are other people in the company that have missed far more days than I had (weeks at a time), and did not meet the same fate. What is "excessive" in terms of employment law?

Excessive is whatever the employer says it is. There is no legal definition in Indiana (or any other state).

The circumstances can make a difference, as can the length of employment. To use an extreme example, a two week absence might be looked at differently for an employee who has worked there for ten years and never missed a day before, than for an employee of three months who has already missed several days.

Likewise, the reason can make a difference. Two weeks is an awfully long time to take for a death in the family (five days is generally considered a generous bereavement leave). Two weeks might not be considered long at all to care for a family member who is ill.

The law does not require that you be given previous notice that your job is in jeopardy before you can legally be terminated. It might or might not make the difference between getting unemployment or not, but you can legally be fired either way.