At Will Employment in Florida

At Will Employment in Florida

The employment-at-will law states that, when an employee does not have a written employment contract and the term of employment is of indefinite duration, the employer can terminate the employee for good cause, bad cause, or no cause at all

In the United States, many employees believe that satisfactory job performance should be rewarded with job security. However, the expectation that employees will not be fired if they perform their jobs well has eroded in the face of increased incidences of mass layoffs, reductions in companies' workforces, and job turnover.

In Florida, employees are presumed to be "at will." At-will employees may be terminated for any reason, as long as it is not illegal. Employees who work under an employment contract can only be terminated for reasons specified in that contract. It is very difficult to overcome the at-will presumption in Florida.

Typically, one encounters the doctrine of employment at will as supporting an employer's right to terminate at any time for any reason, absent a contract of employment, subject to certain exceptions. Although at-will employment allows an employee to quit for no reason, it is most often invoked when an employer wants to fire an employee at any time.

This is often used as a common-sense justification for the right to terminate at will. Courts view the relationship between employer and employee as being on equal grounds in terms of bargaining power. Therefore, the employment-at-will doctrine reflected the belief that people should be free to enter into employment contracts of a specified duration, but that no obligations attached to either employer or employee if a person was hired without such a contract. Because employees were able to resign from positions they no longer cared to occupy, employers also were permitted to discharge employees at their whim.

While an employer is not required by law to have an employee handbook, it is recommended. An employee handbook provides a record of the employer's policies and procedures. An employee handbook also provides more convenient access by employees and managers. The handbook should include a statement regarding the at-will employment relationship, equal employment opportunity statement, policy regarding sexual and other types of harassment in the workplace, Internet access, e-mail, and voice mail policies