What does “at-will” employment mean?
If you are an “at-will” employee, that means you can quit at any time for any reason, without giving notice. However, it also means that your employer can terminate you at any time, for almost any reason, without notice. An employer cannot terminate you for a wrong reason, meaning that there are certain reasons for termination that are not acceptable under the law. An employer cannot terminate you simply because you are one in a class of people who are considered protected under the law. Those protected classes include, but are not limited to, race, religion, disabled status, age, gender and the like. Furthermore, an employer cannot terminate you in retaliation for engaging in a protected activity, or for refusing to engage in illegal or immoral conduct. For instance, you should not be terminated for reporting illegal discrimination or harassment in the workplace, nor should you be terminated for refusing to break the law on the job.
