re: "at will" You've fallen for a misconception that there are 2 types of states in the US as regards the type of reasons an employee can be fired: "at will,"

re: "at will" You've fallen for a misconception that there are 2 types of states in the US as regards the type of reasons an employee can be fired: "at will," and "right to work." That's incorrect. In fact, when it comes to being able to be fired for almost arbitrary reasons (e.g. boss doesn't like the color of your car, or something), there are 2 types of states, but they are "at will," and "Montana." Let me explain that a bit. First of all, "at will" and "right to work" are neither opposites nor mutually exclusive. "Right to work" simply means that, if there is a union in the company, people who join the union can't be forced to contribute to the union. [0] In other words, it bans what are called "union shops." As you can tell, this has literally nothing to do with the legal reasons which one can be fired for. Every "right to work" state is also an "at-will" state. "At will" means pretty much what you think it does: that, absent a specific employment contract stating otherwise, an employee can be fired for almost any reason that isn't considered discriminatory or retaliatory under federal law. [1] There are some nuances to this, but, employers know how to do the dance to get around these things, for the most part, so, you're probably not going to fall under any of the exceptions. Chances are pretty good, actually, that you acknowledged that you are an at-will employee in your offer letter. Now... Montana. Montana is the oddball here. In Montana, once you've worked for an employer for 1 year, or the length of the probation period specified in that employer's policies, you can't be fired without "good cause." Under Montana law, "Good cause is generally defined, in Montana, as reasonable job related grounds for dismissal based upon (1) a failure to satisfactorily perform job duties, (2) disruption of the employer’s operation, or (3) other legitimate business reasons." [2]. Specifically, an employee can't be fired for "no reason," or a silly reason like "boss doesn't like the color of your car." Montana is completely unique in this regard. No other state offers this kind of protection to an employee. So, to summarize: "right to work" has nothing to do with "at-will," and all states are "at-will" except for Montana. --- [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment [2]: https://kortumlawoffice.com/areas-of-practice/employment-law-attorney/ https://kortumlawoffice.com/areas-of-practice/employment-law...