{"id":153,"date":"2023-03-09T16:06:00","date_gmt":"2023-03-09T16:06:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/?p=153"},"modified":"2023-08-07T16:01:56","modified_gmt":"2023-08-07T16:01:56","slug":"at-will-employment-deffinition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/","title":{"rendered":"At-Will Employment: What Does it Mean?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

At-will employment<\/em> means that the employer or employee can end the employment relationship for almost any reason (with or without cause) at any time (with or without notice).<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"at-will<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

It does not, however, allow you to terminate someone for an illegal reason, like their inclusion in a protected class or their exercise of a legal right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every state (except Montana) assumes the employment relationship is at-will unless there is a legal agreement in place that says otherwise. Assuming you want to maintain the at-will relationship with employees, we recommend including clear language about this in your employee handbook. But keep in mind that even with an at-will relationship, terminations carry risk. A terminated employee can always claim <\/em>that they were terminated for an illegal reason, at which point you\u2019ll want to be able to show otherwise. To reduce that risk and nip any potential claims in the bud, you should have and document a lawful, business-related reason for each termination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This Q&A does not constitute legal advice and does not address state or local law.<\/em> Source: HR Support Center<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you would like more information on employment termination and at-will employment, please contact PBS PEO Human Resources<\/mark><\/a> at 205.825.8939 or HR@pbspay.com.<\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At-will employment\u00a0means that the employer or employee can end the employment relationship for almost any reason (with or without cause) at any time (with or without notice).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":155,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,3],"tags":[25],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-human-resources","category-peo","tag-at-will-employment"],"yoast_head":"\nAt-Will Employment: What Does it Mean? - Payroll & Benefits Solutions Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"At-will employment\u00a0means that the employer or employee can end the employment relationship for almost any reason at any time\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"At-Will Employment: What Does it Mean?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"At-will employment\u00a0means that the employer or employee can end the employment relationship for almost any reason at any time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Payroll & Benefits Solutions Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-03-09T16:06:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-08-07T16:01:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Untitled-1920-\u00d7-700-px-6.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Julia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Julia\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Julia\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/8867343d6866fad4f906d5afe18b9bd1\"},\"headline\":\"At-Will Employment: What Does it Mean?\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-03-09T16:06:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-08-07T16:01:56+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/\"},\"wordCount\":213,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/Untitled-1920-\u00d7-700-px-6.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"At will employment\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Human Resources\",\"PEO\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2023\/03\/09\/at-will-employment-deffinition\/\",\"name\":\"At-Will Employment: What Does it Mean? 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