10 ms·

My impression is that labor laws don't work that way. If a person meets expectations for the current role then the company cannot fire them simply because they

My impression is that labor laws don't work that way. If a person meets expectations for the current role then the company cannot fire them simply because they are over-compensated -- I think the employee would have the right to file a wrongful termination suit if that were the case, even if it is "at-will" employment. To prevent this liability the company would likely have to go through the "gestures and motions" of a performance improvement plan before firing said employee (even if behind the scenes the true reason was purely to reclaim over-allocated equity). Now I'm sure Marc consulted lawyers before rolling out this re-negotiation plan but this seems like gray area to me.

rhino369 12y ago
Nope. Unless there is a contract in place, it is fine in "at-will" jurisdictions.
cookiecaper 12y ago
Why wouldn't you be able to fire someone because you think they cost too much money? This is a perfectly acceptable reason to fire someone under at-will employment. It's probably also one of the most common reasons. There are very few reasons that don't fly for a firing under at-will employment. Discrimination against a protected class is the big one, and companies do the performance plan thing so that they have something objective to point to should an employee ever try to claim they were discriminated against. The thing about performance plans is they take 3-6 months to mature into a full firing. If a company needs to clear out an employee quicker than that, they'll forgo the performance plan. The handful of other reasons you can't fire someone are things like the FMLA and retaliation for good-faith reports of harassment or violations of labor law. Pretty much any other reason will probably work. I Am Not a Lawyer and This Has Not Been Legal Advice (tm). Everything I've said is probably wrong.

rhino369 12y ago

Nope. Unless there is a contract in place, it is fine in "at-will" jurisdictions.

cookiecaper 12y ago

Why wouldn't you be able to fire someone because you think they cost too much money? This is a perfectly acceptable reason to fire someone under at-will employment. It's probably also one of the most common reasons. There are very few reasons that don't fly for a firing under at-will employment. Discrimination against a protected class is the big one, and companies do the performance plan thing so that they have something objective to point to should an employee ever try to claim they were discriminated against. The thing about performance plans is they take 3-6 months to mature into a full firing. If a company needs to clear out an employee quicker than that, they'll forgo the performance plan. The handful of other reasons you can't fire someone are things like the FMLA and retaliation for good-faith reports of harassment or violations of labor law. Pretty much any other reason will probably work. I Am Not a Lawyer and This Has Not Been Legal Advice (tm). Everything I've said is probably wrong.