Final piece of advice based on helping several clients with similar appeals: Practice explaining your situation concisely. The judges hear dozens of cases and appreciate when claimants can clearly articulate: 1) Why you had good cause to quit the first job (offer letter for better position), 2) That you were performing adequately at the new job, and 3) That you were terminated for reasons other than misconduct. Stick to facts rather than emotions, and when asked yes/no questions, answer directly then elaborate only if needed. Good luck with your appeal!

I'm in a very similar situation right now! Just got denied last week for the same "insufficient good cause" reason even though I quit my retail job because I got hired at a healthcare facility with better pay and benefits. Then they let me go after 3 weeks saying I wasn't "adapting quickly enough" to their computer system. It's so frustrating because we did everything right - we found better jobs, quit responsibly, and then got fired through no fault of our own! I'm filing my appeal this week too. Reading through all these responses is giving me hope that we can win these cases. The advice about continuing to file weekly claims is huge - I almost made that mistake. Good luck with your hearing!

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread! Really helped clarify the work rules for unemployment benefits in Washington state.

Just wanted to add that if you're working multiple part-time jobs while on unemployment, you need to report ALL of them when filing your weekly claim. I learned this the hard way when I was juggling two different gig jobs. Washington ESD requires you to report every source of income, no matter how small. The good news is that as long as your total earnings stay under that weekly benefit amount plus $5 threshold, you'll still get your full unemployment benefits. It's actually pretty encouraging that the system supports people who are trying to piece together income while job hunting!

wait im confused... did the governors office actually confirm they sent your info to ESD? Sometimes they take your info but theres a delay before they actually send the request.

Just checking back - any updates on your situation? Did you try contacting the governor's office again or have any luck getting through to ESD?

Bottom line - with $1000/week gross you're looking at probably $750-850 per week in unemployment benefits assuming you have sufficient base period wages. The exact amount depends on your wage history over the past 15 months.

Just to add another perspective - I was laid off from a similar tech role making $950/week and ended up getting $780/week in benefits. The key thing that helped me was having all my employment documentation ready when I filed (last pay stub, layoff letter, etc). Also definitely recommend setting up direct deposit right away since paper checks can take forever to arrive. The whole process was smoother than I expected once I got through the initial application.

when I got laid off in November I thought standby meant I didn't have to do job search but that was wrong!! had to appeal and it was such a mess. make sure you understand all the requirements

Thanks everyone for all the helpful info! I'll definitely file my weekly claim this Sunday and keep doing my job search activities. I just wish ESD made all this clearer when you first apply. I've set a reminder on my phone for Sunday so I don't forget to file. One more question - how long does it typically take to get the first payment after the waiting week?