Product News and Recalls

Our Relationship with Work Has Changed. Let’s Define Some Terms.

For millions of Americans, the most impactful thing to have happened as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has had nothing to do with their physical health. As offices shut down, work-from-home became the norm, and service industry workers left in droves to pursue other opportunities, we are in the midst of a tectonic shift in our relationship with work.

As a result, workers across the country currently have more power than they’ve had in a very long time. If any doubt exists as to how much, all one needs to see is a local restaurant offering a sign-on bonus to new employees for coming on board and the lines become much clearer. Still, policies of the past are still in effect and even though there is a massive labor shortage across a variety of the nation’s key industries, wrongful termination and other issues of unemployment are still present.

Most states in the United States permit what is known as at-will employment, which is to say that most workers have likely been at-will employees whether they knew it or not. At-will employment is exactly as it sounds. It is the state of being employed not only at your own will but at the will of your employer as well. There is no contract in place that dictates any of the terms of that employment and, as a result, it can be terminated at any time, with no notice, for any reason (or for no reason), by either the employer or the employee. This is to say that while most standards of professional decorum may call for a standard “two-week notice,” nothing actually exists that formally dictates such a notice period.

This “at-will” state, however, does stipulate that a termination cannot take place over discriminatory causes, nor can it violate state and federal anti-discrimination or retaliation laws. In the event that an employee – even an at-will employee – feels that they have been terminated for discriminatory reasons, they may have grounds for a wrongful termination lawsuit. In that case, an employment lawyer should be contacted to discuss the terms of their employment and subsequent termination.

There’s no denying that a massive shift has taken place in terms of our relationship with work and those with whom we are employed. At the same time, it is more important than ever for the American worker to understand their rights under this new paradigm and hold employers accountable for their side of the arrangement.