Be aware of at-will employment policies - Military Careers, Second Careers - Navy Times

Be aware of at-will employment policies

When, exactly, can your boss fire you? Pretty much any time he or she pleases and for any reason — as long as the reason doesn’t involve such things as discrimination, retaliation, belonging to a union, being pregnant, making a worker’s compensation claim, or to keep you from vesting in a pension or other benefit plan.

But if your boss doesn’t like green cars and you’re seen driving a green car, you can legally be fired, says Bill deMeza, labor and employment attorney at Holland & Knight in Tampa, Fla.

That’s because all states recognize at-will employment relationships in some form.

“‘Employment at will’” describes the legal relationship between a worker and his employer by which each of them has the right to end the employment at any time for any reason not otherwise prohibited by law,” deMeza said.

Most employers have at-will employees. So unless you’re covered by a union collective bargaining agreement or an individual employment contract, you have an at-will relationship with your employer and you’re fair game, concurred Michael Hanlon, attorney for Blank Rome LLP in Philadelphia.

If you’re wondering whether the employer needs “good cause” or “just cause,” Hanlon said, generally that’s not the case. However, it is preferable for an employer to have good or just cause before they fire someone, because the person may challenge the termination as being a violation of anti-discrimination statutes.

Some states put limits on the at-will employment policy, deMeza said, which includes a “public policy” exception, allowing at-will employees to bring wrongful discharge claims against their employer if they were fired for refusing to perform an illegal act.

But if you’re truly at will, you can be fired because it is Tuesday, you’re wearing socks or the boss is in a bad mood, deMeza said.

Still, people are surprised to get fired. Take Tony, who wrote me to say he was fired from his job “with a company I really loved working for” as a sales and customer service representative after fighting a head cold and several nights of not sleeping well. That afternoon, when there was a lull in incoming calls, “a couple times my eyes closed for about four or five seconds.”

A company owner saw it, and at the end of his shift, Tony was let go. It turns out, sleeping on the job is a fairly common reason for discharge, deMeza said.

Or take the eight federal prosecutors who were dismissed recently and the debate that has ensued about whether the firings were politically motivated. David Iglesias, one of those who lost his job, wrote in a New York Times op-ed piece: “I will never forget John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, telling me during the summer of 2001 that politics should play no role during my tenure. I took that message to heart. Little did I know that I could be fired for not being political.”

Whether the boss got up on the wrong side of the bed that day or you did something so egregious you got axed, being fired can be traumatic. As a result of being let go, Tony said, “I consider myself damaged goods.”

He’s not.

Most everyone goes through this in his or her career. If you feel in your heart you did good work and the circumstances were beyond your control, reconcile it and move on.

(Andrea Kay is the author of “Life’s a Bitch and Then You Change Careers: 9 Steps to Get Out of Your Funk and On To Your Future.” Write to her at andrea@andreakay.com.)