Working Too Well

I was partnered with another employee who had been with the company for over a year. During my recent performance review, my manager verbally stated that he may terminate me since I overreached my responsibilities, and left little assignments for my partner. I believe that my partner is just using that as an excuse because she can't meet her deadlines/quotas and I have to pick up her slack. Furthermore, I did not receive any complaints about my performance. It's quite the opposite; I have been awarded two times in the last two months for excellent customer service.

Could they really fire me for working too well?
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Dear 'Working-too-well',

Before you assume that you're being terminated for being "too productive," re-evaluate the situation and be completely honest with yourself. What about this situation is causing your employer to think that you're the "bad guy"? Do you have a tendency to try to do everything to make yourself look better? How do you get along with others - are you the kind of person who is only out for herself, or do you try to mesh well for the team?

Any reasonable employer will never fire an employee for being "too good" or "too productive." But they will fire an employee who can't work as part of a team and share recognition when appropriate.

Now, if you still believe that you did nothing wrong and your boss is a 'jerk', you may find the following doctrine of American labor law useful. At-will employment law states that:

"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"

Several exceptions to the doctrine exist, especially if unlawful discrimination is involved regarding the termination of an employee.

Although all U.S. states have a number of statutory protections for employees, most wrongful termination suits recently brought under statutory causes of action use the federal anti-discrimination statutes which prohibit firing or refusing to hire an employee because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or handicap status. If you suspect that this is the case, you may start a log of your observations such as 1) date of the event happened, 2) event description, 3) witnesses or evidence if any. With this information, contact your local law office that specialize in employment law.