The "Squeaky Wheel" Employee: To Grease or to Replace and the Costs of Each

[T]he Board seems unable to recognize that as a matter of business judgment there can be only one course open to management when an employee persists in giving it the finger. Judge Aldrich's comments are, it seems, all too often ignored by the agencies entrusted with the enforcement of federal statutes affecting free speech in the workplace-the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Wage-Hour Division, United States Department of Labor. This article will examine the validity of the premise discussed by Judge Aldrich in view of the statutory framework, and will suggest the alternatives to the "only one course"-discharge-involved in the Aldrich thesis itself.