Smith Co., a manufacturer of specialty parts for factories, employs Stan Sims as a machine operator. The machines Sims works on are safe so long as the user exercises caution, but can cause injuries if the safety procedures are not followed. Sims has never before displayed any problems around alcohol but one Monday morning he shows up on the job with a pint flask of whiskey in his pocket, obviously at the tail end of a bender. His supervisor sends him home and tells him to return when he has sobered up. Several days later Sims returns to work sober and has not displayed alcohol problems since. The company’s employee manual states that it has a “zero tolerance” for alcohol at the workplace, and also says that, except in cases of misconduct, employees will be given two months of severance pay if they are terminated. In practice, the company has routinely helped employees with alcohol problems, even sending them to clinics at the company’s expense and not firing them until the third or fourth episode of drinking on the job. However, in this case, Smith Co.’s human resources manager, hearing about the incident with Sims, decides that he should be fired immediately. The executive’s reasons are two-fold: First, unlike other employees who have been given second or third chances, Sims works at a dangerous machine. Second, Sims was never good at his job and the executive wants an excuse to let him go. Can the company fire Sims and refuse to give him severance pay?