Does your boss have the right to fire you if he's just having a bad day?

Question

You can be his best employee but he'll take his anger out on anybody.

To Izzy F:
I live in New Jersey, so does that apply to my state?

It sounds really unfair! Why should you get fired just because his wife or girlfriend cheated on him the other night?

Answer 1

My girlfriend was recently fired over a similar incident. Her boss was working on this big project and my gf had already worked her 20 hours for the week at lunch on a Friday. She couldn't get overtime and once she worked her 20 hours for the week she had to stop. You could tell her boss was having a bad day because she had been snappy at my gf earlier that day. The 20 hours came and my gf went to leave and her boss said if you leave don't even think about coming back. My gf didn't come back after lunch or back to work. They run into each other from time to time and I expected her boss to apologize for having a bad day but there never was one.

But to answer your question in short, yes.

Answer 2

unfortunately, in many states, the answer is yes.

If you live in an "at will employment state" your boss can literally terminate your employment without cause and you have little in the way of recourse. The Supreme Court recently upheld just such a judgement.

In reality, companies don't like to fire people because they then have to pay more money into their state's unemployment insurance system. And, despite the existence of at will statutes, people still can and do sue. So as CYA, most employers will build a case against you first. If the company has a written disciplinary policy or termination policy and they fail to follow it, even in an at will state, you may be able to sue because an arbitrary, non-compliant termination would constitute a breach of contract.

The rules may be different under a collective bargaining labor contract, so you'd need to check with your union, if that was your situation.

Answer 3

Yes he or she can if you give them a reason! I recently read a story about a person who was fired by a boss who didn't like them. They had received stellar reviews in the past, and had not messed up at work before. This was their first screw-up.

The boss asked what the problem was, the employee admitted they made a mistake (being honest, like a good employee!) and they were fired.

So the moral of the story... Don't help them out on their bad days by throwing yourself under the gun...

Answer 4

depends on if you have a contract.

"At will" employees can be fired for any reason or no reason at all.
You can show up driving a blue car and the boss doesn't like it... BYE!

With a contract, then the terms of the contract say what can and can not be justification for fireing.

But... why would you want to work for someone who takes his anger out on the employees? Let his business fail.

Answer 5

no he does not.... he has to have a very valid reason to fire anybody, appology and job reinstatement needed or if you can prove he only fired you due to his own empotinal problems then take it to an employment tribunal.

Answer 6

Yes, he does. The only thing he CANT do is fire you because you're black/white/male/female/gay/straight/whatever. Otherwise, employement is almost always at-will.

Answer 7

AS LONG AS HE HAS JUST CAUSE TO FIRE YOU AND NOT SOLELY BEC HE'S HAVING A BAD DAY. HE NEEDS TO GO TO ANGER MANAGEMENT CLASS TO CURB THIS BEHAVIOR.

Answer 8

Technically and legally, yes. It would be pretty stupid, though.

Answer 9

no he has to have a good reason