You’ve been looking for a job for a year. You finally land one after a terrific interview. Your first week on the job is a bit overwhelming, but you figure that things will get better as you get more experience.
Then your boss calls you into the office and tells you that you’re being fired. They don’t actually think it’s a good fit and they’re just going to let you go and hire the person who lost out to you initially.
Is this legal? As you drive home, once again without a job, you may find yourself thinking that they can’t possibly fire you so quickly.
Typically, though, they can. Companies do not need that much reason to let you go. If they don’t think it’s a good fit or are unhappy with your work, even after a week, they can fire you.
When they get into legal trouble, though, is if you’re in a protected class. For instance, perhaps you were the only minority worker on the staff. Is that the real reason they fired you? By saying it was a bad fit, were they really just saying they didn’t want you based on race, gender, age, or some other factor?
After a week, the company may not have much evidence to support your firing, which can also lead you to believe that it was done for illegal reasons.
If you believe that’s what really happened, don’t hesitate to look into your legal rights and options. A quick firing is only legal if it is done for legitimate reasons. Workers have significant protections under state and federal laws.
Source: Zip Recruiter, “Can You Fire a Bad Hire Right Away?,” Matt Krumrie, accessed May 04, 2017