I was recently fired from a job where I worked for 4 years.My boss told me that I was let go because he had been told that I had interviewed with another company. This does not sound like a good enough reason to terminate an employee. Understanding that Ohio is an at-will state of course, at the time of my termination, I had not been offered the position for which I had interviewed, and did not even get offered, accept, and begin working at another position again for another month. I do not believe that it was right to fire me for simply interviewing.

For a little background, I worked in a recruiting office; not as a recruiter however. The position for which I had interviewed was similar to my (then) current position but not identical. I was privy to sensitive material in the office as I managed our network and was in charge of issuing passwords and setting up new user desks. I never compromised this information however, even after being terminated.

After reading several other posts, it would seem that they were within their rights to let me go, but can anyone tell me if this was legal or illegal? Thanks! :confused:

**addition** My former employers are also trying to withold payments from me as well. I believe I have proof that I am still owed certain commissions. We were all required to sign a document stating that in the case of termination, any commissions we had earned for which the invoice payments had been received would be paid. Since I was still employed for the first 14 days of the month, I believe I am owed money for the invoice payments received between the 1st and the 14th of the last month I worked. In addition, I had a bonus structure where I would get paid a certain amount for the placement of a certain number of candidates for each month. While there is no written documentation that these bonuses were to be paid in the following month, I have past pay stubs clearly indicating that my bonuses have been paid the month after they are earned. My former employers are telling me that they owe me no more money, and upon presenting them with these facts, they have stopped communicating with me. Outside of taking them to small claims court, what other action should I take?

It was legal, because there is no law that says they can't fire you for that reason.

Now, whether or not you are owed commissions and/or bonuses is going to be an issue of contract law, not wage and hour law. Many companies have requirements that you must be employed at the time they are paid, and such a requirement is, at least under Ohio wage payment law (which, admittedly, is weak) is not illegal.