At Will Employment

AT WILL EMPLOYMENT, By L D Sledge, JD

Most employers feel secure because they think they have the right to fire any employee at will for any reason. Wrong. With Title VII of the Civil Rights act gone virile with discrimination law suits for sex, age, race, religion, and a plethora of other “rights violations”, no employer is safe. Should you decide to offload an employee, for reasons you feel are necessary, the employee, feeling injured or in some way mistreated, will inevitably consult with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) for a shot at bringing you down and making some nice pocket (or retirement) money. If that employee feels mistreated, the remaining employees may feel the same and this impacts morale and productivity. It has that ripple effect.

How do you avoid this and assure that your status of AT WILL will be maintained in a lawsuit? The nemesis of the AT WILL status is always the Implied Contract. Never let it be implied by your words, deeds, writings or actions that the employment is permanent. (You will love it here? You have a great future with our company…etc.” On the contrary be very positive in language in your business profile, job description, employment contract, your application, your employee handbooks, and in every writing that it is unequivocally AT WILL, and have the new hire sign every document that this is totally understood. Even define any terms, including AT WILL.

Avoid any probationary period. This can be interpreted as made permanent once the period has passed.