where honesty got me ...

Just today I received word that i'm ineligible for unemployment beneifits.  I am appealing that decision. 

Forced into a commute that nearly killed my job once before (the other option being to take a paltry severence and start unemployment after), then denied a local opening within the company because of trouble resulting from said commute.  Even though I don't have the paper to back me up, any supervisor I had would tell you I was overqualified for the position I held, and that I did my job well.  I loved my job: what I did for the customers, and the company. 

I refused to play the game.  I shouldered the blame for things that I was responsible for.  I can't count how many around me abused the system, and state laws, to their benefit and  to retain their employment.  I'm not saying I didn't know those who were clearly entitled.  I couldn't, in good conscience, apply and/or receive benefit for something I shouldn't be awarded.  I'd hoped that my work ethic, and quality of work, would stand for something: that our customer's opinion of me (so voiced through surveys and voicemails) would carry some weight.  Yet here I sit, while complacent individuals collect on the benefit of their deceptions and games, passing the buck and making up answers on the fly: too lazy to use the resources made available to them by the company, or perhaps horribly under-qualified.  Warm bodies filling desks and providing mediocre service (though their "customer service" scores surely say otherwise on paper). 

This is what I get for caring about the work I did, believing I was making a difference.  This is what happens when I'm too honest to work the system for personal gain.  I can't even get unemployment assistance.