Craig Byrnes, Editor

As every practitioner of employment law will tell you, employment in California is presumed to be at will. That means that an employee can be hired or fired for any reason or no reason at all, except, of course, for an illegal reason.

True as that is, anyone who’s ever advised an employer, and those of us who litigate against them, will all agree that companies need to be careful about whom they hire. Even though most employees can be fired at will, poor hiring decisions can lead to disaster. A poor employee, say one with a history of sexually harassing those around him, can expose an employer to liability, decrease morale, and distract the company from its basic business.

How much more important, then, is a hiring decision made for a term? In an employment contract with a term included, an employee can only be fired for good cause prior to the term. Common sense would tell anyone to look carefully before hiring, because getting rid of an employee hired for a term before that term is up can be an expensive proposition.

Of course, hiring employers are usually in the driver’s seat. If an employer offers a coveted position and has many applicants, the employer can afford to be choosy. Why risk hiring an applicant who may be qualified, even immensely qualified, if there is any hint of poor work history? Even rumors lingering in an applicant’s background can and should be enough to cause an employer to look elsewhere.

And if the employer is offering a lifetime position, of high prestige and coveted by many, the Congress hiring manager would do right by the country company to minimize its risk and look elsewhere at the barest hint of trouble.

It’s no comment on the applicant’s character, not a passing on the truth or falsity of whatever multiple sexual harassment allegations issues may present themselves about that candidate. There are simply questions, and in a time of national upheaval uncertain economic times, the Congress hiring manager shows important loyalty to the country company by balancing even the strongest qualifications against uncertainty and risk. Certainty and predictability are, of course, important values in the judiciary any profit-making enterprise.

Hiring high-level employees, typically for a term, requires the hiring manager always to keep the company’s best interests at heart. Any such hiring manager unable to do so, who acts too confrontationally with the other hiring managers such that the company’s interests suffer, should find his or her own six year term not renewed at the earliest opportunity.