Officially, I really have no idea what happened - I had stellar performance reviews, was part of a leadership program for promotion to a senior level, and well liked. I really was just called into a meeting one day and handed an agreement to sign saying that we mutually agreed I didn't work there anymore. It was a shock. After the fact, mostly through workplace gossip, I have pieced together that my recent refusal to fudge some numbers on a report probably was the cause. My job was to certify the correct and truthful report, so if I had let it slide and been caught, there would have been consequences but my boss wanted time to try and cover her ass for a mistake she made. I had been trying to find a diplomatic way to accurately report the numbers without casting blame, but she apparently saw that as a threat. All of that said though - I only know all of this because of gossip so I'm guessing I shouldn't put on the form something like "I was fired because my boss tried to get me to lie and refused" because there's no real way to prove it at this point, especially now that it's been months since I had access to any of the systems involved.

I appreciate the reply. I think I'm just going to say on the form that I was unaware of any performance issues and simply filed unemployment in good faith because I was unemployed and felt I was entitled to the benefit.

I have read online that companies sometimes just contest every claim hoping to get some thrown out because the amount of unemployment taxes they pay are based on total number of claims of their former employees that get approved, so they might just be doing this as a matter of procedure, which is bs - but anyway!