Job Security: Why You Can't Be Disciplined or Fired 'For Any Reason

• Author: Randy Freking
• Profession: Labor employment lawyer
• Pages: 1-6

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CHAPTER

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Job Security

Why You Can’t Be Disciplined or Fired “For Any Reason”

“Employment at will” is an often repeated phrase that is, in many ways, as outdated as the factories of the

late 1800s that spawned the legal doctrine.

The employment-at-will doctrine literally means that, unless you have a contract of employment pro-

viding job security rights, an employer may discipline or fire you for a good reason, a bad reason—even

an immoral or unethical reason—or no reason at all. Thus, under this doctrine, an employer can lawfully

fire an employee because of his race, his age, or any of the other exceptions discussed in this book.

First, it is beneficial to discuss what employment at will is not. The employment-at-will doctrine has

nothing to do with unionized employees who have bargained for “just cause” protection against unfair

employment decisions. Similarly, the term is often used erroneously to imply that nonunion employees

have no rights against wrongful discharges. In addition, some people confuse the phrase “right-to-work

state” with employment at will and incorrectly use the terms interchangeably. We will address “right to

work” considerations later in this Chapter.

According to legal scholars, the policy of employment at will began to appear in the 1880s as part and

parcel of the laissez faire philosophy of the times. Under the laissez faire approach, the federal, state, and local

governments intervened very little in issues relating to business and commerce and instead allowed the free

market to dictate employment policies. Adoption of the employment-at-will doctrine occurred during the sec-

ond phase (the so-called Technological Revolution) of the Industrial Revolution, which ran from the late 1800s

to World War I. This doctrine afforded mutual rights to employers and employees, in that employers could ter-

minate employees at any time, and employees could quit whenever they saw fit to do so. Although employment