As you know, the standard employer-employee relationship in the United States is one of "employment at will." This means that the employee is free to quit at any time, and the employer is free to fire the employee at any time. The typical right-wing conservative will laud this as a wonderful example of the freedom to contract, and explain that this is a fair deal because each party has equal rights to terminate the relationship.
What the right-wing conservative doesn’t understand is that the employer-employee relationship is completely stacked in favor of the employer and is by its very nature unfair to the employee. The employer has many employees: dozens, hundreds, or even thousands. It causes very little pain to the employer if a single employee decides to leave. In fact, custom has dictated that the employee give two weeks notice, and like sheep most employees follow this custom. This customary notice period makes it even easier on the employer.
For the employee, on the other hand, his job usually represents his only source of income. The employee who is fired is totally screwed. And it usually takes an employee a lot longer to find a new job than it takes an employer to find a new employee. I know many people for whom it has taken many months to find a new job, but I’ve never heard of a vacant position going unfilled for months if the employer is making a serious effort to fill it.
The only time employees have an equal relationship with the employer is when they form a union and they all go on strike together. That is the only time the employer ever feels the same pain as a terminated employee.
If an employer were to treat its employees fairly, all terminated employees would be given at least twenty weeks notice, because for the employee, losing a job is at least a ten times worse proposition than losing an employee is for the employer.