Can I sue my employer for firing me for being late only once?
I see questions similar to this one, quite often. I often feel I have answered this question several times and presume that everyone should know by now what grounds can be used to sue your employer – WRONG! Many people still believe that they can sue their employer if they feel that they were fired for something trivial and to them, “not a big deal”. The unfortunate truth is that is simply not true. Your employer can fire you for being late once, never being late, because you are not a good fit, they do not like your personality, your job performance, because they want to, etc.…
Employees, besides those under some form of contractual agreement that changes this status, are usually considered “at-will”. At-will employment means an employee can be terminated by their employer for any reason (except illegal purpose) and without notice. Almost every state, except for maybe one, has adopted laws that protect employers who have at-will employment setup.
With that said, employees are not without any protections. Despite being an at-will employee, your employer cannot terminate your employment, demote you or force you to resign from your work, retaliate against you because you are in a protected class. They may not retaliate against you because you reported illegal conduct.
