Legal Question in Employment Law in Utah

I was working for wal-mart the past 2 weeks (Mind you I'm 21 and this is my first job ever, so working was new to me), and they recently fired me without any written warning. The grounds they fired me on were "being slow" and talking to the employees a bit during work hours. I didn't even get my 90 day grace period, and I was only slow because no one ever gave me a walk-a-round of the store to help me find stuff to put it away. Also I am a very beautiful man (I'm often mistook for a woman I'm that passable) and I only entered male on my info, while they proceeded with calling me she, which I didn't mind. I told some of my co-workers upfront that I'm a guy without trying to pretend to be a girl, but I don't know if that has anything to do with it, but some people say that they could be using that fact and saying something else to disguise their problem with me. Am I able to sue them for these reasons?


Asked on 3/22/11, 5:08 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Mel Larew

Utah is an "at will" employment state, which means that you can be let go at any time for any reason or no reason (unless the reason is against the law). For you to prevail in a suit you must have strong evidence of an unlawful reason. Which is to say that even if they let you go for an unlawful reason you must be able to prove it, which sounds like it would be extremely difficult for you to do.

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Answered on 3/23/11, 9:15 am


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