NYS Department of Labor denied my claim - what are common reasons why unemployment can be denied?

There are several main reasons NYS Department of Labor denies unemployment claims. The most common ones are: 1) Voluntary quit without good cause (sounds like yours), 2) Fired for misconduct, 3) Not available or able to work, 4) Refusing suitable work offers, 5) Not actively job searching, 6) Earnings too high during benefit week. For hostile work environment, you need to prove you tried to resolve it first and that quitting was your only reasonable option. Did you file any complaints with HR or have written documentation of the harassment?

The documentation you have is good but NYS Department of Labor typically wants to see that you made some effort to address the situation before quitting. Even without formal HR, did you speak to the owner or anyone in management about the hostile environment? You might still have a shot at winning an appeal if the harassment was severe enough. Make sure to request your appeal within 30 days of the determination date.

If you're having trouble getting through to NYS Department of Labor to discuss your denial or file an appeal, I had success using a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me reach an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. It was way easier than trying to call the regular number and getting hung up on constantly. Might be worth checking out since you're on a tight timeline for your appeal.

Other reasons they deny claims include not registering with the job search system properly, missing your weekly claim filings, or having issues with your identity verification. But yours sounds like a quit situation so focus on gathering evidence that you had good cause. Hostile work environment can qualify but the bar is pretty high - you need to show it was intolerable and you had no other choice.