Employment At Will Doctrine Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Employment At Will Doctrine - Assignment Example Therefore, even when there is no written contract between the employer and the employee, as long as there was an oral contract, termination of employment should only be for cause and the correct procedures have to be followed (Arnow-Richman,  Glynn, & Sullivan, 2007). The covenant of good faith exception states that the dismissal of an employee is illegal if it is done with malicious intentions or in bad faith, e.g., firing an employee just before a large commission on the job completed is payable. Apart from common law exceptions, there are also other statutory exceptions that are not as popular as their counterparts and have not been widely adopted in many states, for most are similar to the common law exceptions (Stone,  2007). In regard to the first case where one of the employees posted a rant on Facebook criticizing the company’s most important customer, it is very clear that he has gone against the good will of the company and his actions can cause a great loss to t he company. Posting a rant on social media amounts to engagement in matters of public interest and going against professional code of ethics. Therefore in regard to the doctrine, publicly criticizing the company’s most important customer is against the company’s ethics, hence the best decision will be to fire him and that will not cause the company any legal damages (Johnson & Wall Jr., 2006). In the second case, Jim sent an email to other salespeople protesting a change in commission schedules and bonuses and suggesting everyone boycott at the next sales meeting. Jim has the freedom to exercise his right of expression. This is the contravention of the implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. The... With this security established, the employees will prefer to report any illegal undertakings internally rather than externally, hence giving the company a chance to deal with the affairs appropriately, reducing the risk of bad publicity. A good whistleblower policy should clearly define what type of acts need to be reported. This is to prevent reporting of petty issues that can be dealt with at lower management levels. Also, the issues to be reported should be those that involve breaking of companies’ regulations or public policy. It should also clearly define the channels to be followed when reporting any wrongdoing. This will avoid information getting into the wrong hands who may use it for blackmail instead of taking the necessary action. The policy should also have general regulations that protect the whistleblowers. Therefore, for any company aiming to reduce scuffles between the management and employees, it should adopt a good whistle blower policy, follow the employment -at-will doctrine together with the exceptions, and try as much as possible to use utilitarianism in decision making. In as much as both the common law and the exceptions to the employment-at-will doctrine exist, the presumptions still remain a very important feature in many organizations. An employee may have a lot of claims, but it may be hard to prove them. Apart from that, the claims may be not recognized in some jurisdictions since the interpretation of the protections and exceptions in the common law may be misconstrued.