I have two related stories. The first is that I almost got fired for not going on a work trip when I had the literal flu with a doctor's note and positive test. The second is that the same boss who nearly fired me for that was told by another subordinate that he was going to be sick the next day wink wink and had no problems with that guy taking a three-day weekend.
I don't know where you are from, but in many countries in Europe they couldn't - you can't be fired while taking PTO or sick leave (and you also can't fired because of taking it at all).
At will means they can fire you for no reason but they still can't fire you for certain specific reasons. If you, for example, take FMLA leave because you are sick, they cannot legally fire you for it. Of course, they might try and do it anyways and trump up performance issues and you may well lose your case, but in principle they aren't allowed to.
Dude. It is not that simple. Employees have rights, even when being fired. Your employer might say otherwise (most do), but that’s just an intimidation technique.
If it was as simple as being “at-will”, then there wouldn’t be such a thing as Wrongful Termination lawyers. You might think they just work cases where racism, sexism, etc. involved, but nope. A majority of their cases are not related to legally protected classes.
A majority of their cases are not related to legally protected classes.
I'm sure they handle workplace negligence, contract breach, whistleblower, harrassment, retaliation, and discrimination civil cases, but what wrongful termination cases do they handle that don't include those topics?
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u/cupholdery 1d ago
OP is assuming managers won't just fire you.