Category: At Will Employment
What happens when an employee starts yelling at the boss, makes profane social media posts about work, or engages in other “abusive conduct?” In many cases, employers can follow their own policy and impose discipline if appropriate. But, where profanity and heated outbursts come up in the context of complaints about the terms and conditions of the employee’s job, the...
A bartender is told by his employer, in violation of state law, that he must share tips with other employees. He refuses to comply and is fired. The state law in question says he can sue for being required to share tips, but doesn’t say anything about suing because he was fired. Does the law effectively provide a “wrongful discharge”...
Social media has created a minefield of concerns for both employees and employers. The news is full of stories of employees documenting their questionable off-duty conduct on social media, or posting comments containing racist or derogatory remarks. Often, the employer—or sometimes, the rest of the online community—will demand that the employee be fired. In such a scenario many employers may...
A recent decision from the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals highlights the distinction between firing an employee for personal or politically expedient reasons (which may be entirely legal) and firing an employee because of his or her protected status or for exercising protected rights (which is typically illegal). The decisive question answered in this case was can an employer terminate...
Question: We are an accounting firm and recently fired an employee at will. We have always understood that Montana law disfavors non-competition agreements, therefore, our employment agreement provides that if the accountant provides services to our clients within six months of leaving, he will pay us the profits from such an engagement which are stipulated to be 75% of gross...
Question: A friend just told me that we have to revise our Employee Handbook. He claims we no longer can say that our employees are employed “at will.” They are. Why can’t we say it?
Quirky Question # 143: I read with interest your analysis of QQ # 140, dealing with closely held corporations. We are in a similar situation, though we have the sticky additional issue you referenced of the matter involving a family member. This person claims she is entitled to “lifetime” employment. Given that she’s only in her late 40s, that’s a...
Quirky Question # 140: We have a small closely held company. Our owners are family members and a few close friends. Happily, our company has been increasingly successful. Unhappily, one of our executives does not seem capable of growing with the company. We have made a difficult decision to get rid of this at will employee. When we advised him...
Quirky Question # 114: We are a national company with operations in virtually every state. We stress to our employees that they are employed “at will” giving them the right to resign at any time for any reason, and preserving our right to terminate their employment at any time, for any reason not prohibited by law. Recently, an employee in...