Hi Mustang Gal,

You are getting good advice from the others who have answered before me. I am writing you due to the fact that I can speak from the point of view of an EMPLOYER.

They will not fight your unemployment claim, and as others have said, you ought to have COBRA (or state continuation, which is what it is called when you work for a smaller firm) which means you have the right to continue your health insurance for a number of months -- probably 6 to 9 depending on what state you are in.

It is costly for an employer to hire someone and fail to train them -- and then have to let them go in such a short period of time as you experienced.

I am slow to hire, as I don't want to make those sorts of mistakes. In other words, I might bring someone on as a contractor to work on a project for a short period of time as a way to assess whether the new person "fits" with the current staff. Had they done that, you would not yet have benefits. But since they didn't, everyone is correct that both your prior employer AND this most recent employer will have legal liability for you - and no choice on that, given the circumstances you describe.

Good hunting for a new job. The teleseminar we did last week with "Feisty" -- Mary Eileen Williams -- was chock full of great ideas on how to find a job in this economy. I'll get the recording uploaded soon --and meanwhile, you might want to look for her new book -- "How to Land the Job You Love."

After all, that's the kind of job you really want, right?

Anne