this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2023
239 points (90.8% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26968 readers
1312 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try [email protected]


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either [email protected] or [email protected]. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email [email protected]. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 106 points 1 year ago (5 children)

At-will employment makes no sense to me. You go to work every day knowing you could be fired without any possibility of taking the time to find another job. It would drive me crazy.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 1 year ago

Oh it's terrifying.

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

You should not compare that to employment as it is known in other countries.

Rather compare it to slavery. Doesn't it look better now? ;-)

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (4 children)

The flip side is we can quit at anytime.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago

Yeah, that really doesn't make up for it.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I mean, I'll take the months notice period and knowing I get redundancy if my job goes over being able to quit a bit faster.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (4 children)

So like mid-shift or are there any limits to this?

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago

I quit by showing up 3 hours early and sent an eff you I’m out email. Dropped my badge on my desk and walked out without talking to anyone.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

No. You just tell someone above you that you quit, and then leave.

You could walk out without telling anyone, but that's rare. Depends on how shitty the job is.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nope. I literally walked into work, dropped off my badge, said I quit and never looked back. HR called and I let it go to voicemail. They wanted to confirm my mailing address. A few weeks later I got my last paycheck. I left that company to change fields and it has never come up as an issue in subsequent roles. Quitting without notice is a fantastic perk that almost no one will be able to use. The key is to burn out early so looking for the next job is just around the corner.

[–] Draghetta 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I’m sorry I don’t get why this is a perk.

In here we have mandatory notice up to three months depending on tenure. It’s perfectly normal for new employers to have to wait the notice period when hiring a new person. Mind you, that’s 3 more guaranteed pay checks after you quit.

If you want to leave early you can negotiate a shorter notice, which i personally have never seen refused - normally people don’t want to keep leavers around so they’ll agree to a couple of weeks for handovers and then happily send you away with your (mandatory, tenure based) severance bonus.

If your old employer is petty and wants to keep you around for the whole notice you can just stop caring and carry on with the bare minimum. What are they going to do, fire you? Unless you’re causing them serious damage in that time they can’t do anything about it. That is also why employers tend to be very happy when you try to negotiate a short notice period.

I can understand how satisfying it must be to show up, slam your badge on somebody’s desk and say “fuck you I quit” - but other than those two seconds of joy I don’t see any other benefits.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There's no negotiating anything with at will employment. You just leave if you want to leave.

You can negotiate if you want to. Or you can say fuck off and just get another job somewhere else. That's the freedom of it. You're not locked into any type of contact.

[–] Draghetta 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah but I don’t understand how that’s better. Your employer has to agree to keep you around longer rather than the other way around, feels much worse for financial well-being. But even if it was the same, there’s no way that’s worth having zero notice firing without just cause.

It feels a bit like cope ngl- like yeah I’m doing chemo I can’t eat anything but flavourless meal replacements but look I’ve never been slimmer! That’s a remarkable perk!

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't get it either. Ignoring the inherent power imbalance between a single worker and an employer, good luck getting Gardening Leave in an at-will workplace.

https://www.gov.uk/handing-in-your-notice/gardening-leave

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That’s interesting. Why is it called gardening leave?

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

From a euphemism for being suspended on full pay pending an investigation. You aren't working, and you can't work for a competitor, so there's not much to do but potter about in the garden.

(The term originated when the paid white-collar workforce was still overwhelmingly comprised of men who weren't responsible for housework or child rearing.)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Oh that is interesting. Thanks for the info!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Depending on your contract, you can absolutely just leave mid shift with no repercussions. Even if you breach your contract, the company will have to pursue legal action to claim any damages, which is costly.

[–] spacecowboy 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean, I don’t live in an at-will state and I can quit at any time too.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

So you live in Montana?

... because that's the only one.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess that also makes it somewhat easier to get hired though? You can give your employees a chance without thinking too much about it, and if they suck just fire them.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We have this in Germany - for the first six months of employment. Ok, it's still two weeks notice because that's the right thing to do, but still, it's less than the 1/2/3/4/5/6/7 months of notice required after working at a place for 0.5/5/8/10/12/15/20 years. (BGB §622 for the curious)

There is no reason to keep the possibility for such a short notice indefinitely.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

For the most part, in my experience, don't be a fuck up and you won't get fired. Every company I've ever worked for has had very strict rules about firing people, It can take months for someone to get fired for anything short of violence, theft, or sexual harassment.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Thanks for the answer. It’s clearer now.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Some companies having strict rules isn't a stand-in for decent workers protections.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Employers don't have protections from employees flaking out either. It goes both ways.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah, there's quite a power imbalance there ...

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Only if you're easily replaceable.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago

No, then there's still a power imbalance, only slightly less egregious.

[–] [email protected] -1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is true. No idea why you're being downvoted. There are tons of protections in place for workers in at-will states.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nope. You can just get laid off for "no reason."

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

No you can't.
Labor laws are a very real thing.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Yes, that's the entire point of "at-will" employment.

There are protected classes, but "for no reason" is quite legal in most states, which is the terrible reality. US labor laws suck.

https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/law-and-life/what-are-your-legal-rights-if-you-are-laid-off/#:~:text=Federal%20Protections&text=Nearly%20all%20jobs%20are%20considered,long%20as%20it's%20not%20discriminatory.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

That depends on where you're working. If you're working for a company in an industry that tends to lay people off at certain times, then yeah you're probably to be laid off in the future. Most companies aren't like that though.