At Will Employment

At Will Employment Definition

At will employment is also called employment at will and hired at will. All terms mean that employment is presumed to be voluntary and indefinite for both employees and employers, under the Doctrine of Employment at Will.

Grammatically speaking, the term at will should be hyphenated, as in at-will employment. However, because not everybody knows that, we omit the hyphen to make it easier for visitors to find this article in a Web search.

In other words, at will employment means that employees may generally quit their jobs at any time, for any, no or even unfair reasons.

By the same token, employers may generally fire or layoff employees at any time, for any, no or even unfair reasons. (That's the inference of the saying, "I serve at the pleasure of the board of directors.") Exceptions are noted on the next page.

At will employment also means that employers may decline to hire job candidates for any, no or even unfair reasons, except for those noted on the next page.

All states enforce at will employment to some degree. To ensure employees know and acknowledge that their employment is at will and to help avoid employee lawsuits, employers may legitimately ask employees to sign contracts or agreements that document and enforce the terms of at will employment.

Alternately or additionally, employers may document the terms of at will employment in policy manuals or similar documents, and then ask employees to sign contracts or agreements acknowledging that they've received, read, understand and will adhere to the terms. Many states consider policy manuals and similar documents to be enforceable, implied contracts for both employers and employees.

Employers and employees may legitimately waive certain at will employment rights through contracts and agreements. For example, union-employer collective bargaining agreements might stipulate the terms and conditions under which employers may and may not discharge union employees.

The next page explains the Doctrine of Employment at Will and state exceptions that render it inapplicable.

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