Can They Fire You When You're Doing A Good Job?

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You would not necessarily guess before you take an HR position that a lot of the job involves educating people.

You wouldn’t think that so much of your day as an HR person would be spent listening to your teammates and answering their questions about a host of workplace issues.

I was leading a big employee meeting where our new credit union account manager came to explain the basics of household finance to my colleagues. It was a tremendous meeting, because it educated me about how little some folks know about living on a budget or managing their finances. It made me really sad to see the gap that persisted after our employees had graduated from high school and sometimes even college. They had jobs, but their questions showed me that for some folks their grasp of basic economics was very shaky.

We heard the question all the time in meetings with the credit union rep: “How can I have no money in my account when I still have checks left?”

We don’t kids teach kids about personal finance, and that’s a shame. We don’t teach them a lot of important things, like basic communication and conflict resolution skills. We don’t emphasize critical thinking and we ignore non-linear problem-solving. We slap kids down for stepping out of line. That’s the opposite of what we should be doing. Remember the command “show your work” in math class? Why teach a kid that there’s only one right way to solve a problem?

Lots of working people don’t understand Thing One about employment law. Why should they know that stuff? We don’t teach that in high school either. How can you let a kid out of high school without teaching him how to get a job? Yet we do, year after year.

Employees asked me questions about work and life and the subject we call HLOE – - Human Life on Earth — all the time. It was a huge part of my job to explain things. I always felt like the person letting a kid in on the Santa secret when I had to have conversations like this one:

JANELLE, A YOUNG EMPLOYEE: So, if I do a good job, I’ll probably work here for a long time, right?

ME: Well, who knows, Janelle. I hope so, but I don’t know exactly what will happen in the company, for you or me or anyone. In the business world, things can change any time.

JANELLE: What do you mean?

ME: Well, I don’t mean to scare you, but we are in the high tech industry. Our company is growing fast, and that’s fantastic. The experience you and I are getting will be invaluable to us, no matter what we do. But the high tech world is also very volatile. I’ve seen companies grow incredibly fast and others blink out of existence. This is not as secure a job as, let’s say, the Vatican.

JANELLE: You don’t think you will retire from here?

ME: I can’t imagine that I will, Janelle. I’m thirty-five years old. I have a million years left before retirement, and you have many more than I do. I don’t want you to think about this job as a place to work until retirement.

JANELLE: Why not?

ME: That wouldn’t be good for you. We all need to be alert and aware and focus on building our skills. That makes us more marketable.

JANELLE: To who?

ME: To our next employer, or client.

JANELLE: But if I do a good job, doesn’t the company have to keep me here?

ME: Janelle, if you do a good job there’s no reason you should leave here if you don’t want to, but there’s no way to predict what will happen in the world. The company could shut down. That’s the opposite of what’s happening now, but who can imagine that the unbelievable growth will go on forever?

JANELLE: You mean they could lay people off here?

ME: I’ve been here for seven years and we haven’t laid anyone off. But there was a layoff here before I arrived.

JANELLE: Wow! Okay, one more question. If there isn’t a layoff, is it legal for a company to fire a person?

ME: Legal? Yes, it’s legal. It’s called Employment at Will. It means that companies get let employees go without a reason, as long as they don’t discriminate when they do that.

JANELLE: No reason at all? Just — “You’re fired?”

ME: Based on the law, no reason is needed – you could follow the wrong sports team or drive the wrong kind of car. That’s the law. As long as I’m in this job, we’re not going to do that here, but I want you to understand how the world works, since you asked me “Can they legally let me go?”

JANELLE: I had no idea. I thought they had to keep you if you did your work. You mean, you could hit all your goals, month after month, and one day they can still let you go?

ME:  Legally, yes.

I think Employment at Will is a massive drag on profitability, because it gives people a reason to clam up when they should be singing from the rafters about how their company could be healthier and more productive. Why would anyone speak up when the smallest disagreement could get them bounced from their job?

At the same time, as long as Employment at Will is the law of the land (in the U.S., anyway) we may as well speak our truth at every opportunity. If you can be let go when you’re doing a wonderful job, then that’s a signal from the universe to be ready to go at any moment, good job or not. A

ssume that when you rub someone the wrong way merely for sharing ideas that are intended to help the organization, you’re not supposed to be working there anyway. The quicker you can flee a place like that, the faster your flame will grow.

Yes, you can be fired when you’re doing a great job, if you scare somebody who wishes you weren’t quite as bright and shiny an object as you happen to be. That’s okay. You have no time to waste with fearful ninnies. Your future is big and bright, and it’s right in front of you. Go find it!