Do I have an employment contract?

In every state in the U.S., an employer (both private and public) has the right to fire an employee "at will," absent a verbal or written employment contract. This means that absent unlawful discrimination, an employer may fire an employee for any reason, or no reason, at any time, under any circumstances. Ninety-nine percent of the time, employees who are working without an employment contract have no meaningful remedy at all if they are fired. Even when they are fired for what appears to them to be no good reason, or unfair reasons (unless you are a member of a labor union, which has most likely negotiated a written contract with your employer guaranteeing that you will not be fired without just cause).

It’s possible, however, that your employer gave up the right to fire you "at will" through an earlier agreement. The first question you want to ask, therefore, is whether you and your employer have such an agreement. While highly sought-after employees may be offered contracts of a predetermined duration, complete with provisions guaranteeing that they will not be fired absent "just cause," these contracts are the exceptions, not the rule.

A lot of employees feel that they must have some kind of contract with their employer because of promises and assurances of fair treatment, or their boss said that their employment would last for a specific duration. Bear in mind, however, that if you don't have it specifically in writing, it is likely that no court will recognize the employer as having given up its right to fire you at will.

Am I in a protected category of employees?

Most people are generally familiar with the laundry list of protected categories of employees, which are actually more like protected characteristics. For example, it is against federal law for employers to discriminate against current or potential employees based on race, national origin, religion, sex, the presence (or perception) of a disability, military status, being over the age of 40, or taking "family or medical" leave to which the employee is entitled under the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA).

It's also against federal law under many circumstances to discriminate against non-supervisory employees for acting in concert with their coworkers in agitating for better wages and working conditions.

Many state and city laws provide additional protection to employees, for example, by forbidding discrimination against employees based on characteristics such as sexual orientation and family status.

Additionally, it is unlawful in many locations to be fired or discriminated against in violation of "public policy", such as being a "whistleblower," or for refusing to perform an unlawful act. That's not true everywhere, however. Last I looked, an employer could lawfully fire an employee in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maine, Nebraska, New York, Rhode Island and the District of Columbia for refusing to cooperate with, or making an effort to stop, an unlawful act or scheme.

Just because you have a protected characteristic, (as is clear from the long list above, everyone has several of them) it doesn't mean that your employer isn't entitled to fire you without good cause. The only thing that is forbidden is firing you because of the protected characteristic or action. You can still be fired for no reason, or for a patently unfair reason, so long as you were not being discriminated against in violation of state or federal law.

What was the real reason for my being terminated?

Determining whether or not you have any remedy for being fired depends in large part on why you were fired. If you don't have a written or verbal employment contract, you're going to be out of luck unless you can convince people that the real reason you were fired was unlawful.

That doesn't mean that you are stuck with the reason the company gave you when it showed you the door. It does, however, mean that you had better believe that the actual reason you were fired was something unlawful. If you know, in your heart of hearts, that you were fired because of a personality conflict, or because you stood up for something your boss disagreed with, or the job just wasn’t a good fit, the odds of your being able to convince anyone else that you were actually the victim of unlawful discrimination are vanishingly small.

Cross-posted from http://qvisory.org/posts/what-to-do-when-you-get-fired-part-2-evaluate-your-legal-rights