The Lever Archives - understand-culture

For No Cause

In 1884 the Supreme Court of Tennessee decided Payne v. Western & Atlantic Railroad. It held that employers “may dismiss their employees at will, be they many or few, for good cause, for no cause or even for cause morally wrong, without being thereby guilty of legal wrong.”

Montana has changed this by law. Its Wrongful Discharge from Employment Act of 1987 makes a dismissal wrongful when “the discharge was not for good cause and the employee had completed the employer’s probationary period of employment.” Montana is described as “the only U.S. state that has chosen to statutorily modify the employment at-will rule.”

The Unlucky Group

On December 1, 2021, Vishal Garg, the chief executive of the mortgage company Better.com, held a Zoom call with about 900 employees, about 15 percent of the company. “If you’re on this call, you are part of the unlucky group that is being laid off.”

A week later he apologized in a letter: “I own the decision to do the layoffs, but in communicating it I blundered the execution.” He apologized for the manner, not for the decision.

The Saturday Night Massacre

On October 20, 1973, President Nixon ordered Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Archibald Cox, the special prosecutor investigating Watergate. Richardson refused and resigned. His deputy, William Ruckelshaus, also refused. He resigned, although some accounts say he was fired. The Solicitor General, Robert Bork, carried out the order.

Loss of Confidence

In 2023 the US Navy relieved 16 commanding officers. Fourteen were relieved for “loss of confidence” in their ability to command. The other two left for medical reasons. The Navy typically cites only that phrase.

Those With Whom He Cannot Work

On June 29, 2026, the Supreme Court decided Trump v. Slaughter by a vote of 6 to 3. The Court upheld the President’s firing of Rebecca Slaughter, a member of the Federal Trade Commission. Chief Justice Roberts wrote that “neither Congress nor the courts may saddle him with those with whom he cannot work.”

The Court also overruled what remained of Humphrey’s Executor, a decision of 1935: “If anything more is left of Humphrey’s, we overrule it.” Justice Sotomayor dissented, joined by Justices Kagan and Jackson.

The Vocabulary of Dismissal

Pink slip. Merriam-Webster defines it as “a notice from an employer that a recipient’s employment is being terminated.” Its first known use is 1904.

We’re going to have to let you go. The standard sentence. The decision has been made, and it is not open for discussion.

Clear out your desk. Leave today. The cardboard box of belongings is part of the picture.

Serves at the pleasure of the President. A senior official can be removed whenever the President chooses.

“I Do Not Wish Your Advice”

On September 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln called his cabinet together. He had written the preliminary Emancipation Proclamation. Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase recorded the meeting in his diary.

Lincoln explained why he was acting now: “The rebel army is now driven out, and I am going to fulfil that promise.” He told them: “I do not wish your advice about the main matter – for that I have determined for myself.” Then he read the proclamation.

Rank and Yank

In the 1980s Jack Welch introduced a ranking system at General Electric. The top 20 percent of employees were the most productive, and the middle 70 percent did adequate work. The bottom 10 percent were to be fired. The practice became known as “rank and yank.” Welch called it “differentiation” and defended it. “If you want teamwork, you identify it as a value.”

Microsoft used a version called stack ranking. Each employee received a single rating from 1 to 5. The rating “triggered increases in merit pay, bonuses and the awarding of restricted stock units.” In November 2013 Microsoft’s head of human resources, Lisa Brummel, ended the system in an email to employees. “No more curve,” she wrote.

The buck stops here

Truman kept a sign on his desk in the Oval Office reading exactly that, and used the phrase repeatedly to describe the presidency. The buck is passed, in American usage, from one person to another. The sign announces where the passing ends — at a named individual, in a specific room.

Employment at will

The American default: either party may end the relationship at any time for any lawful reason, without notice. Forty-nine states apply it. There is no statutory dismissal protection accruing with service, and no requirement to justify the decision.