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ARTICLE · 11 APRIL 2014

Off-Duty Conduct Can't Get You Fired. Right?

Fisher Phillips LLP
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Common sense indicates that an employer should not be able to fire an employee for doing or saying something away from the workplace and off the clock.

United StatesEmployment and HR
Jennifer Sandberg
Jennifer Sandberg
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Common sense would seem to indicate that an employer should not be able to fire an employee for doing or saying something away from the workplace and off the clock. Right? Well, not so fast. Employers may have more leeway than they (or their employees) realize.

A long-standing and strong tenant of employment law in the United States is employment at-will. The employment at-will doctrine provides that either an employer or an employee can choose to enter into, stay in, or end the employment relationship for any reason at all — good or bad — as long as the reason is not an unlawful reason. If the practical application of the doctrine were as straightforward as the doctrine, no one would be reading this blog.

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