policy enforcement

[Memnoch]

Originally Posted by Gabrielles blades they can hire and fire as they choose, but can they ignore company policy except when they feel like using it?

Unfortunately that's what at-will employment is. Unless it can be proven that they are in contravention of discrimination laws, they can do what they like.

At-will employment is a doctrine of American law that defines an employment relationship in which either party can break the relationship with no liability, provided there was no express contract for a definite term governing the employment relationship and that the employer does not belong to a collective bargaining group (i.e., has not recognized a union). Under this legal doctrine: “ any hiring is presumed to be "at will"; that is, the employer is free to discharge individuals "for good cause, or bad cause, or no cause at all," and the employee is equally free to quit, strike, or otherwise cease work.[1] ” Several statutory and judge-made exceptions to the doctrine exist, especially if unlawful discrimination is involved regarding the termination of an employee. These restrictions have been controversial; an empirical study in 1992 by the RAND Corporation showed that imposing exceptions to at-will employment resulted in a long-term drop in aggregate employment of two to five percent.[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/At-will_employment

The logic behind at will employment is that employers will be more likely to hire people if they can get rid of them quicker.

In contrast, in Australia and many parts of Europe employee-employer relations are governed by government legislation, which means that once employees are hired they are basically part of the furniture. They enjoy a lot of protection - they can't be fired without being given 3 warnings which are at spaced-out intervals, they are given counselling, and many other things that are supposed to help them improve. This works both ways - as an employee you feel safe as long as you are doing your job, but it also makes it hard to get rid of lazy bastards who do absolute minimum and that can't be fired.