FTA: The reason? In most states, if a person is fired with cause for violating company policy - such as mandatory vaccinations - they are not entitled to unemployment benefits and payments.
"Even something as simple as a dress code that says you have to wear a tie, and that's the company's policy, and you say, 'I don't believe in wearing a tie, so I'm not going to do it.' That's insubordination," says John T. Harrington, Principal at The Employment Law Group. "It's misconduct, and it would likely disqualify you from receiving unemployment benefits."
Harrington said there are only two exemptions to a vaccination requirement - medical or religious. In both cases, however, exemptions are determined on a case-by-case basis with employers. Just because one employee is granted a religious exemption, it doesn't mean that will extend to anyone else.
It was completely coincidental that my employer was going through a reorganization at the time, and my position was reorganized out of existence. I am in the IT field and have been remote for a year, and they mentioned that they were beginning to open the office again (with no word of whether they'd require the jab, but I saw the writing on the wall at this woke company.)
I began a search but specified "remote only" positions. Within a month I had gone through three interviews, and accepted a position. (If you are an anon with a day job as a recruiter, I sneered at the overused phrase "remote until covid" on all the stupid listings that people sent me. WTF does "remote until covid" mean??) But that's neither here nor there.
There are plenty of jobs out there, and if you aren't constrained by needing to be onsite, you might get really lucky.
When I left the corporate world it was because I'd had to help orchestrate 6 downsizings in 7 years and all the fun had done out of that world. When it got to the 6th one, many really good people had already left, and I could tell the company wasn't going to last much longer (3 years later it was gone), so I put my own name on the list to be offloaded, took the severance package and never looked back. I had a plan for working from home, my plan was successful, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.