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Comment by unishark | Hacker News Reader

I'd call it petty more than sleazy. Drama queens on both sides.

Threat of resignation is not a resignation. Either they follow due termination process, or she might still be employed or have good legal case.

There's no legal requirement for a termination process in the US. A company may choose to give notice, but with a few rare exceptions, they can fire you on the spot at any time for any reason if they want to.

Is that true? Is there not any laws protecting the employees or setting time limits for the notice and the actual end of the contract?

In many U.S. states to include California, employment is legally considered “at-will.” This means the employer can terminate the employment agreement at any time and for nearly any reason.

You cannot fire someone for membership in a protected class (race, religion, sexual orientation, etc) or participation in protected activities like reporting an employer’s violations of the law, but it’s difficult to prove intent in such cases.

There are exceptions for unionized workplaces with collective bargaining agreements. Employers in those situations cannot fire employees without “just cause.” Google R&D is not unionized, however.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment

why is this being downvoted? They stated facts not opinions.

Im most cases downvotes are knee-jerk reaction. I find it normal. People are sensitive creatures with strong biases as default. I read HN actively from 2008 (good old days:) ) nowadays I always look at downvoted comments first to gain information.

I have been long time HN lurker and I too miss the older times, but have hard time finding better alternative.

There is no alternative, and probably will not be another. HN is a result of optimistic hacker culture with big dreams for success and tons of useful info and people. Ideological and practical Impact of HN on my career (18 years +) is enormous, it is on pair with early Google, INFOQ, Nielsen Norman Group. We live in different times now, innovation is hard, most of the valuable users don't have free time to post and I understand this. You can still extract value from HN, but with more friction and effort.:)

Analysis: true

Unless she has a bespoke employment agreement, it probably says that employment is “at-will” and can be terminated by either party without notice.

Is this true, legally? Can they not accept a demand for resignation and be legally immune from claims of discrimination?

I assume they wanted her out and she accidentally gave them immunity, so they jumped on it.

Her tweet suggests she submitted a resignation letter, and offered to "take her name off of it" if they met her terms. Means that's not a threat, they got a signed letter for her resignation.

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