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employer or the employee is free to say “this isn’t
working for me,” even if it is only because they don’t
like the color of the other person’s socks.
Massachusetts is an “at-will” employment state.
This means that, subject to the exceptions below, an
employee can be fired for a good reason, a bad reason, or
no reason at all. This also means that, contrary to
popular belief, there is no legal requirement that an
employer use warnings or “progressive discipline” before
terminating an employee.
B. Exception: Discrimination
If instead of terminating an employee because you
don’t like the color of their socks but instead because you
don’t like the color of their skin, most people understand
that would violate the laws against racial discrimination,
which arose to address a long history of unequal
6| Rules of the Road
