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You can't just fire someone on the spot, perhaps in Russia or China I'm guessing, but you have employee and human rights laws protecting you from things like that. You'd have to do some sort of criminal / sexual offence for that to occur and be legal.

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In the US, most employment is 'at will' and employers can and do fire without cause. In this case, a marginally sophisticated employer could readily cast what was written as justification for firing with cause. And because of the way unemployment insurance rates for an employer are set, the employer has a financial incentive for so doing. On top of that, those lawyers would have access to historic chat logs to back up the company's interests.

Of course none of that applies outside the US.

Oh gosh, that sounds absolutely horrible and clearly unfair, I'm truly sorry to hear that (if you live in the states).

I'm afraid you're very wrong. Almost all employment in the US is "at-will", meaning it can be terminated by the employer at any time and for any reason. They don't even have to say what the reason is.

As I said above: Oh gosh, that sounds absolutely horrible and clearly unfair, I'm truly sorry to hear that (if you live in the states).

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