Not So Common Reasons To Be Fired

          Terminated position, fired, burn notice, or sacked, call it whatever you want. With job security being at an all time low in today's job market, it seems like everyone is paranoid of being let go from a company. Even if employee turnover rates (the amount of time between an employee being hired and fired) were minimal, we have all had the feeling of dread after a bad performance report. It's not as bad as you think. Most reasons employers have for terminating employees are 100% avoidable.
                  Excluding the obvious reasons for being sacked, such as sexual harassment and criminal activity, the following is an exhaustive list of ways to be let go from a position and how to avoid them.

• Drunkenness or being hungover
• Professionalism and productivity are at their worst only after a night out with friends. If you want to go out every night and black out from drinking, it's your choice to do so. However, showing up to work drunk or extremely hungover creates a bad reputation for the entire company and bad blood with customers.
• Engaging in office gossip
• Did you hear that the boss's secretary hooked up with a competitor's CEO last Friday at the Christmas Party? Gossip is very fun and very annoying. Leave the gossip and drama at high school. If you're not fired for being a Nosy Nancy, most employees will quit once in a lifetime job positions because the office setting was too catty. It's not just women. Testosterone pumped "my car is bigger than your car" sessions are just as, if not more, off putting than gossip.
• Excessive social media
• Did you know that the incognito window and clear browser history do not erase computer records in your companies intranet? Over 33% of employers admit to disciplining workers for excessive social media use. But how do you know how much is too much? Any easy thing to remember is your time on social media should only be 1/16th of your work day. If you work 8 hrs/day, only be on Facebook for 30 minutes. 
• Trash talking company and/or coworkers
• Whether it be on Twitter, at the water fountain, or at a party with friends; word gets around. Despite the fact we all survived elementary school, there are still tattle tales among us. Any passing phrase from "I thought his choice was extreme" to "My boss is a f*@% s%#$ pie" will get you anything from a write up to a termination. 
• Being hard to get along with
• Those of you who think you need to be a jerk to be an executive, your days are numbered. I once let an employee go for making faces when her supervisor walked by. Everyone has secretly given their boss the finger under the desk at least once in their career, but it's consistent insubordination and bad attitudes that will get you kicked out the door.
• Lying on resume
• Stretching the truth that you were manager at your last job when you managed mail will get you fired quicker than you can say, "Do you want fries with that?"
• Emailing and communicating in all caps
• WHEN YOU DO THIS IT SEEMS LIKE YOU ARE YELLING, DOESN'T IT. AS AN OFFICE 101 RULE, THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST PETTY OF LEGITIMATE REASONS TO BE FIRED.
• Vigilantism
• When I worked as a waitress in high school, I knew this girl who only received a $0.48 tip. She then ran outside and threw the change at the party's car. My boss wouldn't even let her back in the building. Cracking under the stress and acting out in the name of personal justice is a big no no.

          What you are fired for no reason? In most of the US, workers are generally considered “at will” employees. At-will means that you or your employer can terminate your job on a moment's notice for any reason, whether good, bad, indifferent or for no reason at all. The law in most states presumes that an employee is at-will unless the employee can prove otherwise. Unless the termination violates federal or state law, company policies, or an implied contract, there is very little that an at-will employee can do to protest a termination without a reason.

          But it's not what you think. An employee may not be terminated if the termination violates fairness and good faith in transactions and dealings with others. Breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing happens when an employer terminates an employee on bad faith. For example, if an employee can show that an employer indicated that the employee would be treated fairly at their company, and that the employee’s termination was unreasonable, this is a breach of an implied covenant of good faith and fair dealing. Courts have found that this type of indication can be shown by employer affirmations such as continuous pay raises and excellent performance reviews.

          The bottom line of employee termination is that both the employer and the employee have rights of employment. The employer has a right to fire an employee, but an employee has a right to be treated fairly. The thing to remember is to treat others as you would want to be treated, keep work at work, and we all heard what you said about the accounting department.