Employment at Will
LEG 500 Law, Ethics, and Corporate Governance
Assignment 1
Employment-At-Will Doctrine
Cynthia Gomez
Professor Natalie Stratis-Malak
October 28, 2012
1. Describe what steps you would take to address the following scenario involving skills, competence and abilities.
The following steps that would be taken to address when an employee seems to be unable to learn the computer applications that are basic to her job responsibilities, but consistently “tells” her boss that she is “a good worker and a genius” and that he does not “appreciate her”. Even after a few months of training and support, she is unable to use the computer tools to be productive and efficient in completing the required tasks in my opinion are pretty basic. This is simply a case for termination with good case even though this does not legally need to be stated in an employment-at-will environment (Roehling & Boswel, 2012). As an employer working under the employment-at-will doctrine the employee would have first signed legal documents that she knew she was working under these circumstances. There would also have been a probationary period that this employee knew existed to ensure that she was properly trained and could perform the functions that she was assigned. This would have given the employer the right under this doctrine to terminate an employee who was not productive and could not perform her duties.
As a manager and supervisor I would periodically have done assessments on this employees performs, sat down with her to see where her weaknesses were, provided the needed training she required to perform her job and would have documented all this in her employee file. If after several months of training and support she was still unable to perform her duties then I would proceed with the process of terminating her. It is understandable that she is well educated and recently out of college but
Assignment 1
Employment-At-Will Doctrine
Cynthia Gomez
Professor Natalie Stratis-Malak
October 28, 2012
1. Describe what steps you would take to address the following scenario involving skills, competence and abilities.
The following steps that would be taken to address when an employee seems to be unable to learn the computer applications that are basic to her job responsibilities, but consistently “tells” her boss that she is “a good worker and a genius” and that he does not “appreciate her”. Even after a few months of training and support, she is unable to use the computer tools to be productive and efficient in completing the required tasks in my opinion are pretty basic. This is simply a case for termination with good case even though this does not legally need to be stated in an employment-at-will environment (Roehling & Boswel, 2012). As an employer working under the employment-at-will doctrine the employee would have first signed legal documents that she knew she was working under these circumstances. There would also have been a probationary period that this employee knew existed to ensure that she was properly trained and could perform the functions that she was assigned. This would have given the employer the right under this doctrine to terminate an employee who was not productive and could not perform her duties.
As a manager and supervisor I would periodically have done assessments on this employees performs, sat down with her to see where her weaknesses were, provided the needed training she required to perform her job and would have documented all this in her employee file. If after several months of training and support she was still unable to perform her duties then I would proceed with the process of terminating her. It is understandable that she is well educated and recently out of college but
References: Gibson, J. W. (2010). The Evolution Of Employment-At-Will: Past, Present, And Future Predictions. American Journal Of Business Education , 89-100. Roehling, M., & Boswel, l. W. (2012). “Good Cause Beliefs” in an “At-Will World”? Employee Responsibilities & Rights Journal , 211-231. Sentell, E., & Robbins, R. (2008). EMPLOYMENT AT-WILL. Journal Of Legal, Ethical & Regulatory Issues , 1-15. Willey, L. (2009). THE PUBLIC POLICY EXCEPTION TO EMPLOYMENT AT WILL: BALANCING EMPLOYER 'S RIGHT AND THE PUBLIC INTEREST. Journal Of Legal, Ethical & Regulatory Issues , 55-72.