Assignment # 1 Employment-At-Will

LEG 500
Professor Brasca
5/9/14

At-Will Employment Doctrine is fairly unique to the American employer-employee relationship. The United States remains the only country that adheres to the at-will employment doctrine while most industrialized nations still require employers to show good cause before the employers can terminate employees.
At-Will Employment Doctrine allows employers to terminate employees for any reason, or no reason at all. In an at-will work environment, there is no fairness or justice that can be protected or enforced by the courts. For instance, an employer can terminate an employee because they dislike the style of dress, or the way one behaves (Pitchford, 2005). Scenario 1: John posted a rant on his Facebook page in which he criticized the company’s most important customer John should be terminated because he violates the Ethic of Care by leaking critical information about the on social media. The social media could damage company reputation and it may lead to financial losses. Customers have to right to sue the company for sharing their information on Facebook without the consent. John jeopardizes the company and the customer’s relationship (Halbert, P25). Scenario 2: Jim sent an email to other salespeople protesting a change in commission schedules and bonuses and suggesting everyone boycott the next sales meeting In this scenario, manager needs to have a one-on-one discussion with Jim. Jim is not violating any law. There is a Freedom of Speech; he can say whatever he wants. But to protect a company’s interest, manager should handle this internally with Jim and other team members. Company legally can’t fire Jim because the Nation Labor Relation Act protects him; this Act protects employees as they communicate with one another to organize and form a union or to