Legal Question in Employment Law in California
Not yet out the door
What can an employee do,if anything to protect themselves from being fired for ''politics & personality'' reasons? It seems it is not unlawful to be fired for having a perceived unpopular personality, or for being considered anti-social because your lifestyle is different from other workers ie. being poor,thru no fault of your own. I have worked for this employer for about 3 years, have never been ''written up'' or verbally reprimanded for any of this, but gossip I've heard is that I'm considered ''odd'' by some coworkers, but not to my face. I have been fired for ''at will'' reasons in the past by another employer who refused to give any reason whatsoever, I ended up getting unemployment without a problem because I was never ever told there was a problem. Isn't it a rule of some kind that an employee must be warned 3 times, given a chance to conform to the boss's requests before a termination? If my boss wants to get rid of me because I'm unpopular and no fun, is there anything I can do besides trying to change my personality or find another job?(which I feel I shouldn't have to do) I do well in my job duties otherwise, I feel I am well suited for my line of work, except for how others feel about my personality. Please advise.
2 Answers from Attorneys
Re: Not yet out the door
A good part of my practice revolves around working with "in service" employees.
If the accurate starting point is your employment is "at will", which is similar to saying "at the whim of the employer", you see the problem. No, notice or reasons are not required, unless you've been given some promise that you might expect to get both. Most of the time, the answer is recognizing a special protected class you might be part of, like gender or sexual orientation for examples, and explore if the threat to continued employment is somehow related to this characteristic. If so, with the assistance of a qualified attorney, you can acquire some meaningful protections. Otherwise, if HR won't be your ally, then a personality clash is often the very reason employees get 'cut from the herd', alot like H.S. I guess.
Re: Not yet out the door
What can you do? Nothing, except be a better employee so they don't want to fire you. That's how employment works. Unless the grounds for firing are 'illegal' such as Title VII discrimination or whistleblower retaliation, you would have no case.
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