[andrewingram]

IIRC the UK is at-will for the first two years of your employment too. Some startups leverage this to an almost toxic degree.

I had one manager (who then became CTO and is now CEO of another startup) who, by all appearances, treated firing as the only tool in his arsenal for dealing with any personnel problem. I was never on the receiving end, but in a few cases I know for a fact that he lied (or hugely exaggerated) about what the terminated employee had been done. He is the reason I left.

[Mumps]

I believe this is partially correct: https://www.gov.uk/dismissal

* you can demand written explanation if you've worked for at least two years

But, for most contracts here a 3/6 month probationary period seem to be the norm for tech/professional roles, and then a 3-month notice period (to quit or be let go).