Employment At Will Doctrine Case Study

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EMPLOYMENT AT WILL DOCTRINE A COO’s Ethical Decisions Jeanne M. Catalano Strayer University Authors Note This paper was prepared for Leg 500 Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance Taught by Professor Professor A. Weekley Employment at Will Doctrine: A COO’s Tough Decisions Employment at Will is a double edged doctrine that allows both employees and employers to terminate the working relationship. The United States is the only country that recognizes employment at will and basically gives employers reason to “fire employees for a good reason, a bad reason, or no reason at all” (Halbert & Ingulli, 2012, pg. 46). Over the years there have arisen many exceptions to the Employment at Will doctrine such as public policy, wrongful termination,…show more content…
There are two cases that could fall under freedom of speech. John ranted on his Facebook page criticizing an important customer of the company and Ellen started a blog to protest the CEO’s bonus and badmouthing her bosses. The First Amendment gives public and private employees different protections in regards to freedom of speech. According to Dolgow (2012), “In America you can say pretty much whatever you want, wherever you want to say it. Unless, that is, you’re at work. Simply put, there is no First Amendment right to “free speech” in the workplace” (para. 1). Employers restrict speech in the workplace like political because it can lead to hostile work environments and unproductive to employers (Dolgow, 2012). CFO Adam Smith posted a video of himself bullying a Chick Fil-A employee because she worked for in his words a homophobic company and was terminated for poorly representing his employer (Dolgow, 2012). “Constitution and the federal laws only protect a person’s right to expression from government interference, not from the restrictions a private employer may impose” (Dolgow, 2012, para.4). Both employees can be legally fired and there are no exceptions in either case to employment at

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