So . . a company can fire a white collar work for no reason what so ever? That is news to me . .. thanks Rocker River
Yes, but they usually don't unless its a cost savings lay off. Very rarely will a company who is financially secure just fire someone for no reason. With potential litigation always an option for someone who gets fired most companies don't just fire for no reason. In fact, I've worked for my company for almost 6 years and I've only seen one person be fired and it was due to a huge misuse of company property (an employee had basically set up a huge file share of illegally downloaded material on a company server). The company was liable for the material, so they fired the employee doing it. That was the only time I've seen someone get canned in my company (and its a huge company). I've seen layoffs. I've seen downsizing, but in that case there is usually a financial package in place. But layoffs are cost savings measures for a company, and while they suck and I don't like them, and I usually think they have them due to poor hiring practices when money is good, I can see how a company should be able to do them for the long term health of the corporation as a whole. If 5,000 people have to lose their jobs so 150,000 can keep theirs in a healthier company, well, that's just the nature of the beast.
This is very true and aside from examples galore, I witnessed this in real life. While I was doing graduate projects in Paris, I was seeing a french girl. She was in business school, but had just been hired part time at a fashion botique in the Champps and stated that she had to be there and be on time for the first month, because after that month it was impossible to fire her and she could come in late and skip work sometimes. Its like cheese, if it is left out then the mice will find it!
Layoffs and downsizing I understand but for the boss to walk in and say . . TOM YOU ARE OUT OF HERE seems like . . i don't know. . . didn't think they could Why are White Collars different that Blue or other collars Rocket RIver
they're not different in that respect. they're exactly the same in terms of at-will employment in the state of Texas.
Right, but that is not usually going to happen. If I'm a manager and just walk in and fire Tom for no reason, Tom is going to sue my company saying he was fired for wrong reasons...unless I can back up the reason he's being fired very well, he *might* win. So a company isn't going to allow that to happen because it costs way more money to hire lawyers and go to litigation rather than just letting Tom keep his job. BUT I guess it COULD happen. But basically fear of being sued keeps almost all companies from just randomly firing people. What would more likely happen would be that I would walk in to Tom and tell him he's fired. Tom would protest to HR...HR would redeploy Tom to another department, and I'd be censured for trying to fire someone without reason or documentation. Now if Tom really deserves to be fired, most companies would put them on a "plan" to get them back on track. All their goals and work would be documented for about 6 months to a year. If they still don't improve, then they would be fired. If they improve and become productive, everybody wins. Also, if I fire Tom, my company has to pay more unemployment tax + it costs more to hire and train a replacement. If I can retrain Tom, or redeploy him, it saves money overall.
I'm coming late to this thread too so pardon me if these points have been covered. I've got no sympathy for the French protestors and the French populace in general in thier attitude to labor. The French are essentially protesting maintaining their right to sinecure (unproductive jobs) no rational business should be expected to have a workforce that they can't get rid of because that will just breed laziness and incompetence. Among the workers and make the business extremely hesitant about bringing on new workers. That's one of the reasons why the French unemployment rate is so high because even during good economic times companies are reluctant to bring in new workers if they know they may be saddled with them at the next economic downturn or can't replace the incompetent ones. I'll agree with Rocket River that people shouldn't be fired on a whim but at the same time businesses need to have some flexibility in regard to their workforce and be able to hire new workers when needed and fire incompetent ones when needed.
The only thing that pisses me off about at will labor is that they can fire you at anytime without any kind of warning and it is ok but if you bail out of a contract or just quit your job without giving a notice, they act like you humped their mom. If I'm "required" to give two weeks notice when I find something better or whatever, why dont they give me the same respect?
MOST employers would give you some time....or at least give you a couple weeks/months pay. just as MOST employees would give 2 weeks.
There has to be a medium Companies and People need protects to an extent America is too PRO COMPANY and France is too PRO Person America = NFL France = MLB Rocket River
