Can they fire you if a good ex-employee wants to come back?

[Eevee17]

Originally Posted by jaypee

Right. Perhaps you're reading too much into it. Why believe in a theory that doesn't make sense?

OP said "My boss and co-worker expressed such concern and asked me if we had any openings she can apply to. "

It would make sense that the question veers more towards "Do we have any work she can do if we hired her?" or "Do you have any work you can offload if we hired her?".
Because if they wanted to fire OP, they can simply do so without asking.

Your theory doesn't make sense either. They're getting along fine with one person (one salary). Would they take the work of one person and turn it into two salaries? That doesn't make sense. They're just looking for reasons to justify firing. If she does find work to pawn off on the former intern, she's either lazy or not good at doing the job (i.e. needs help). If she doesn't want to share the work, she's not a team player because former worker is popular with the right people.

[jaypee]

Originally Posted by Eevee17

Your theory doesn't make sense either. They're getting along fine with one person (one salary). Would they take the work of one person and turn it into two salaries? That doesn't make sense. They're just looking for reasons to justify firing. If she does find work to pawn off on the former intern, she's either lazy or not good at doing the job (i.e. needs help). If she doesn't want to share the work, she's not a team player because former worker is popular with the right people.

Sigh. Again, they don't need reasons to justify her firing. A simple "not a good fit" will do.

You're assuming they "get along fine" with one person. You're assuming you know their business growth.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with investigating to see whether they can justify hiring someone ahead of their needs. Lots of companies do this when they find a good candidate but have no reqs to fill.

[Eevee17]

Originally Posted by jaypee

Sigh. Again, they don't need reasons to justify her firing. A simple "not a good fit" will do.

You're assuming they "get along fine" with one person. You're assuming you know their business growth.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with investigating to see whether they can justify hiring someone ahead of their needs. Lots of companies do this when they find a good candidate but have no reqs to fill.

No, most companies try to get people to do the work of more than one person to be cost effective.