Illinois is an “at will” employment state. That means that, absent a written employment contract, i.e. a collective bargaining agreement, an employer can terminate you for no reasons, valid reasons and in some cases even false reasons. They cannot fire you for discriminatory reasons, but “discrimination” for employment law purposes is  very well defined, i.e. race, age, sex. One of the greatest misunderstandings employees have is that an employer cannot harass them. “Harassment” is a very specific term under the law regarding employer/employee relations. For instance, if you’re a Cubs fan and your boss is a White Sox fan. The boss can “harass” you as much as he or she wants. However, if you’re a practicing Buddhist, at least in the city of Chicago, it may be unlawful for your boss to “harass” you for being a Buddhist.

Another misconception that employees quite often have is that a “handbook” or “employee manual” is an employment contract. It most likely is not and if you read the first or second page of the handbook.it will most likely explicitly say it is not a contract. Only under a very small set of circumstances can an employee bring legal action against an employer for NOT following what is described in a handbook. Handbooks, more likely then not, contain suggestions of how the employer should act, but not requirements of how they MUST act.