Employment at-will is a legal concept referred to as the Doctrine of Employment at Will. It essentially means that, in the absence of employment contracts that indicate otherwise, employers generally may fire employees for any reasons, no reasons and even unfair reasons, as long as they are not illegal reasons. At-will employment disclaimers are a staple of employee handbooks in the United States. It is common for employers to define what at-will employment means, explain that an employee’s at-will status cannot be changed except in a writing signed by the company president (or ceo), and require that an employee sign an acknowledgment of his or her at-will status. The at-will practice is typically traced to a treatise published by Horace Gray Wood in 1877, called Master and Slave.



