Employment-at-Will Doctrine

Employment-at-will doctrine

Angelica Morales

LEG500 – Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance

Professor Gus Weekley, JD

May 3, 2014

Employment-at-will doctrine

Unlike many other countries, since the last half of the 19th century, employment in the United States can be terminable by the employer or the employee for no reason at all. This doctrine could be beneficial for the business and for the employees when changes are needed, but it can cause uncertainty in employees when one of the most basic needs is to have the sense of safety. In previous times, employees could obtain the sense of employment security by ensuring they had a good job performance, but in today’s work environment with the massive layoffs and being a good, hard-working employee cannot guarantee employment stability anymore. In the need to feel some security, employees began forming unions in the 1960’s and protections were created, like the Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act that prevented employers from wrongfully discharging an employee based on race, religion, sex, age, or national origin (Muhl, 2001). As a recently-hired Chief Operating Officer (COO) of a midsize company that is preparing for an Initial Public Offering (IPO), it is important to first address the multiple personnel problems that have been recently discovered and address if the employee can be legally terminated and what actions to take to limit liability and impact on operations.

Situation 1 - John posted a rant on his Facebook page in which he criticized the company’s most important customer.

In this case, it would be legally correct to fire John because he was expressing his own opinion of the company’s most important client. The employee’s rant comments could directly affect the company if they were to reach the ears of the customer and the company has a right to fire John because none of the exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine apply to this case. I think that the company should create a “Social...