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Is that legal? I'm fairly sure in most of europe you wouldn't be able to fire someone for something that minor. I listened to 2 minutes of the speech around wh

Is that legal? I'm fairly sure in most of europe you wouldn't be able to fire someone for something that minor. I listened to 2 minutes of the speech around when he fired him [1] and the guy sounded like he was itching to fire someone, he mentioned 2 or 3 times that if you didn't like where Patch was going, or if you weren't 100% committed you should leave. In fact, immediately before firing he said: > "If you think what’s going on right now is a joke, and you want to joke around about it, you should pick your stuff up and leave Patch today, and the reason is, and I’m going to be very specific about this, is Patch from an experience — Abel, put that camera down right now! Abel, you’re fired. Out!" Just looks like a pathetic way to try and show people he's serious. I hope he has to resign because of this (assuming the only reason for firing the guy was the picture) [1] http://jimromenesko.com/2013/08/10/listen-to-aol-ceo-tim-armstrong-fire-his-creative-director-during-a-conference-call/

mikeash 13y ago
In many, perhaps most parts of the US, you can legally fire employees without cause.
- madaxe 13y ago
  This - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
- _delirium 13y ago
  In general yes, but you're on the most solid ground if you just state no reason for firing, or something generic like wanting to align staffing with business needs. If you actually give a reason but it appears to the court to be a malicious or vindictive one, in some states it can run afoul of the implied requirement, read into all economic relationships, of good faith and fair dealing. I'm not sure if it would apply here (probably not), but it's been applied in the past when a manager appeared to be doing things like timing a layoff to deliberately cause maximal harm to the employee, or a company had an unwritten policy of firing people before benefits vested in order to make sure the promised benefits never materialized.
  - mikeash 13y ago
    Yes, it's important not to confuse "without cause" with "for any cause". You can fire people for no reason at all, but some reasons (e.g. because of their race or religion) are still out of bounds. Of course, proving such a thing can be tricky when they aren't required to have a cause at all.

mikeash 13y ago

In many, perhaps most parts of the US, you can legally fire employees without cause.

madaxe 13y ago
This - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment
_delirium 13y ago
In general yes, but you're on the most solid ground if you just state no reason for firing, or something generic like wanting to align staffing with business needs. If you actually give a reason but it appears to the court to be a malicious or vindictive one, in some states it can run afoul of the implied requirement, read into all economic relationships, of good faith and fair dealing. I'm not sure if it would apply here (probably not), but it's been applied in the past when a manager appeared to be doing things like timing a layoff to deliberately cause maximal harm to the employee, or a company had an unwritten policy of firing people before benefits vested in order to make sure the promised benefits never materialized.
- mikeash 13y ago
  Yes, it's important not to confuse "without cause" with "for any cause". You can fire people for no reason at all, but some reasons (e.g. because of their race or religion) are still out of bounds. Of course, proving such a thing can be tricky when they aren't required to have a cause at all.