1. My father was hospitalized with severe chest pains.
2. I was fired from my job, which I loved, with zero warning and no reason. Four days before Christmas. On the day of the office Christmas party.

Is it wrong that I no longer give a damn about what I look like/weigh? Guess how many jobs are available the week of Christmas? The answer is none. I am so terribly, terribly screwed.

I just wanted to post a quickie and say I'm very sorry for the way you have been treated at work. Hopefully you will get an even better job in the very near future and can tell your old boss ! Good luck to your Dad. Sendings special thoughts your way!!!

I'm really sorry to hear about your dad. But, as for your job, what's the work policy on warnings and firings? Do you have any idea about why they may have fired you? How long have you been here? I'm not big on the legal side of employment, especially not in Tennesse, but there is a chance you could have a case here.

And I feel your pain on looking for jobs the week before Christmas.

Thanks for the good thoughts about Dad. He's been discharged and is feeling better... he has a pacemaker and was having some irregular heartbeats for an unknown reason. But he's out and he's okay.

Policy on firings, which I am familiar with as I wrote the entire ****** employee handbook: they can basically drop you at any reason, at any time, with no warning. There is a warning system in place, but it's optional. I was never warned. Matter of fact, in the nearly eight months I've been there I received a grand total of ZERO comments on my job performance. I stayed late. I worked weekends. And the only thing I was told yesterday morning when I came in to work was "Things in the office aren't going the way we want them to."

The unemployment office is closed for the holidays, but from all I've looked at I'm eligible for unemployment benefits. I hope I am, at least, because otherwise I'm gonna be homeless.

Before I start, I'm not a qualified lawyer (nowhere near) so I wouldn't take this as watertight but this is what I know:

Unfortunately, as you have only been there for 8 months, it's unlikely you've met the minimum period in order to bring a claim. I know in the UK it's a year but you might want to check that up for your area. Also, as a dismissal procedure wasn't part of your job contract, they could just fire you - but it does strike me as strange that an employer would have no complusory disaplinary procedure what-so-ever. I think here in the UK, there's a statutory minimum for what you have to do. You might want to look into that (but, again, that will probably only be relevent if you've met the minimum qualifying period for working there anyways). If you want to look into this, you can often get the information from government websites or citizen's advice websites.