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Comment by GartzenDeHaes | Hacker News Reader

This is not true, employers cannot fire employees without cause. The US has somewhat strong labor laws, but people are not educated about them and employers often ignore them. You'd be surprised how fast most HR departments will settle if you get a lawyer. GET A LAWYER.

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At-will employment varies by state, so CapitalistCartr's comment above is true in many states[1]. For example, in Georgia, your employment can be terminated for no reason at all at any time (as long as it is not for a protected reason, i.e. firing because of the employee's race, religion or sexuality).

edit: changed Florida to Georgia because Florida specifically appears to have at least some exceptions to this[2]. In Georgia it seems even if your employer is doing something illegal and you report it, they can legally fire you in retaliation.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment#By_state

[2] http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Displ...

At-will are executives, not employees. If you're at-will and not an executive, get a lawyer -- that's not legal.

There are a handful of states where non competes only apply to executives, but at-will is typically applicable across the board.

Looks like I'm wrong on this one.

From https://www.ncsl.org/research/labor-and-employment/at-will-e...

> Employment relationships are presumed to be “at-will” in all U.S. states except Montana. The U.S. is one of a handful of countries where employment is predominantly at-will.

> At-will means that an employer can terminate an employee at any time for any reason, except an illegal one, or for no reason without incurring legal liability.

Also, retaining a lawyer is prohibitively expensive for much of the workforce (even with free consultations, and excluding public options like filing complaints with labor bodies)

You can be fired without cause in all at-will states, with very few exceptions.

If you are fired without cause you continue to get paid via unemployment insurance. At least in every state I have been too.

At max $855/wk pre tax.

$275 per week in Florida. Completely useless. And we're not the lowest.

"Insubordination" is the key word you need to look at.

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