Can i get terminated for refusing to get into a dirty mascot costume?

Question

Can i get terminated for refusing to get into a dirty mascot costume?

Answer

Illinois is an "at will" state for employment, so unless you have a work contract (which could be a union collective bargaining agreement or some other written workplace manual/rules) you can quit any time and can be fired at any time, for NO reason. In a situation like this it may be a question of how you approach the boss about the problem: you'd be happy to represent the business and having the costume being clean and presentable to the public is important - you'd be happy to take it to the cleaners if the boss will pay for the cleaning, or something like that. BUT, if wearing the costume is in fact your job, the boss may expect you to pay for it to be cleaned, so check first, because very often taking care of the "uniform" is the responsibility of the employee, and if you object, that alone could be insubordination and grounds for immediate termination. The point here is you want to represent the boss's business as best you can, right?