[falcolas]

And yet, it works just fine in reality. That hypothetical argument is pure speculation, used to justify a law that's used to mask firing for illegal reasons and threatening employees.

Termination for most companies is expensive. It's why so many US companies still have and use PIPs. They're up against a threat of losing a lot of money, and if they can remediate the employee (it happens a fair bit, I've found), they've saved that money.

To paraphrase a rather decent well and septic guy on TikTok, "I've just put tens of thousands of dollars into this guy's education. Why would I get rid of him?"

[JumpCrisscross]

> it works just fine in reality

There are multiple equilibria. At-will favors agility.

On the other end of the spectrum we find economies where most of the workforce is informally or short-term employed and where new-firm formation is limited by employers' aversion to hiring and senior employees' reluctance to leave cushy jobs from which it is nigh-impossible to be fired.

> paraphrase a rather decent well and septic guy on TikTok

They are quoting Lee Iacocca.

[falcolas]

> agility

Potential agility at the expense of eroding an employees rights and upsetting their equilibrium. IMO - not worth it.

> On the other end of the spectrum we find

Which is not a symptom of requiring a reason for firing someone, it's a symptom of the employer making people irreplacable.

Something that happens today even at-will workplaces.