Employees who work without a contract are referred to as at-will. A contract between an individual and
his employer or a collective bargaining agreement between an employer and a labor union are both
examples of employment contracts. If you are an at-will employee, you have the freedom to leave at
any time, but you must accept the risk of losing your job at any time.
For an employee, the biggest advantage of being an at-will employee is that you can leave at any time
for any reason. You are not obligated to notify your employer in advance. If you receive a more tempting
job offer and want to take it and start working right immediately, you can resign your existing position
without giving notice or breaching an employment contract.
The biggest disadvantage of working as an at-will employee is the lack of predictability. Your employer
has the right to terminate your employment at any time without giving you notice, just as you have the
right to leave your job at any time without giving your employer notice. You may not have the
opportunity to clarify the circumstances behind the actions that led to your dismissal because your
employer is not required to notify you why you were fired.
At-will employment allows employers to fire a low-performing employee at any time. The employer
does not need to explain why the employee is being fired; simply alerting the employee that she is being
fired, effective immediately, is sufficient. If an employer believes an employee has broken corporate
policies but does not want to incur legal exposure by filing charges, the at-will employment philosophy
permits the employer to terminate the employee’s employment relationship without providing a
potentially litigious explanation.
Certain state legislatures have enacted protections for at-will employees as a response of employee
outrage over the risk of wrongful termination. In Montana, for example, the Wrongful Discharge from
Employment Act was enacted in 2009 in response to complaints that employers were abusing the at-will
employment doctrine to deprive long-term employees of pension and vacation benefits. Under
Montana law, a terminated employee can sue for wrongful termination if his employer fired him for