Hi, first time posting here.
I'm reaching out to see if anyone has knowledge/advice on the situation I am in.
I work for a nationwide news media corporation at a mid-market local tv news station in Georgia.
For a multitude of reasons, I am way past my expiration date for this job/industry – shitty pay, keeping shitty employees around and expecting others to pick up slack without zero compensation for it, expectations that in no way match compensation, keeping an employee around who's been proven to sexually harass women online, toxic and poor management, and just the plain heaviness of working in news are a few.
I'm technically in a managerial position and my role is a contracted one.
The terms of the contract are that, were I to break it and leave before its end (about a year and a half), I would owe the remainder of the salary I were to make to the company.
I've seen at least a dozen people break their contracts here before to leave. I know that some people have paid, but at least in one situation the company was willing to forgo the “penalties.”
But a friend of mine told me a few days ago that Georgia is a right to work state and that this actually means that this goes both ways – essentially she said both parties have the right/ability to end the employment at will without consequences, and that it doesn't matter if I'm in a contract. She said that they really can't force me to pay it back.
I've reached out to an employment lawyer whose services I've used in the past to confirm this but he hasn't gotten back to me, and I'm just curious what other people may know or have experienced. Thanks everyone.