United They Fall

The United debacle that's ALL over the news highlights an aspect of employment contracts that is sometimes - maybe often - missed. Protections in an employment contract are great, but the reality is that, if you want your job and if they want to play hardball, all of these protections may not be worth the paper on which they're written. There are now reports that suggest that ‎Oscar Muñoz had provisions in his employment contract that required him to ascend to the chairmanship of the Board and, furthermore, gave him Good Reason to quit if the ascension did occur. Then, he savagely mishandled the horrific passenger-ejection situation, and asserted that his job was not in trouble. Apparently, as a result, Mr. Muñoz will NOT ascend to the United chairmanship and, indeed, is . . . ahem . . . agreeing to the effective deletion of both the provision that would have required him to become Chairman and the provision that would have given him Good Reason to quit were he not to become Chairman. So, the net effect of the purportedly protective provisions? - zippo. Another lesson learned for those execs who might have some really, really good clauses in their employment contracts, but who might really, really, really prefer to have their jobs rather than enforcing those clauses.