Scope

• The at-will employment agreement means that an employer or employee may terminate employment at any time, for any reason and without notice. It is a common agreement in employer-employee relationships. Exceptions occur in termination cases based on discrimination or retaliation.
  
  

Considerations

• Further exceptions to the at-will agreement come when it establishes a specific employment period, when employment comes from a collective bargaining agreement or when an individual works as a public employee in a civil service system.
  
  

Conditions

• Individual employment agreements may mandate specific terms unique to an industry. For example, "Patents for Beginners" highlights the case of a 3M employee deprived of patent rights to the Post-it Note, which he invented. A preinvention assignment provision was included in his employment agreement.