Podcast Summary

Work For Humans: "The Master Servant Doctrine: How Feudal Law Still Shapes Modern Work"

Date: November 4, 2025
Host: Dart Lindsley
Guest: Elizabeth Tippett, Associate Professor, University of Oregon School of Law, author of The Master Servant Doctrine: How Old Legal Rules Haunt the Modern Workplace

Episode Overview

This episode explores how the centuries-old Master Servant Doctrine, rooted in feudal Britain, still permeates modern American employment law, governance, and culture. Dart Lindsley and Elizabeth Tippett delve into the doctrine's principles—control, governance, and the (moral) duty of support—analyzing how they underpin “at-will” employment, HR practices, worker rights, and the binding of essential benefits to jobs. The conversation also unpacks the dangerous history and enduring cultural baggage of these legal norms, including legacy issues derived from the era of slavery in the US.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Origins of the Master Servant Doctrine

[04:17 – 06:11]

• US employment law is a direct descendant of British “master servant” law.
• The “master” had the right to control, govern, and dismiss; in return, a (somewhat moral) obligation existed to support the worker’s basic needs.
• Governments historically delegated authority and the duty of care to the “master,” creating “mini-governments” within each household or organization.

Quote ([06:34] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“Courts are very reluctant to meddle in an employer's affairs unless the legislature has said... actually, employers are not allowed to do this. But even when the legislator has said that, the courts will still try and give employers as much latitude as they can, because there's this background idea that this is their territory, their domain.”

2. Enduring Principles: Control, Governance, and Support

[11:37 – 20:57]

• Right to Control: Employers dictate duties, worksite safety, schedules, terminations—unless unionized, workers have nearly no say.
• Right to Govern: Employers set workplace rules and handbooks; many policies are unexplained “boilerplate” or legacy from past events.
• Duty of Support: Now more rhetorical than legal, this principle underpins why benefits bind people to jobs. The “support” employers provide (e.g., healthcare) remains based on company discretion, not public provision.

Quote ([13:22] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“They don’t need to put [location policy] in the contract because it’s up to them. Employment at will... gives them the right to say, ‘You need to come back to the office or you're done.’”

3. The Doctrine's Toxic Variant: Slavery’s Impact

[22:07 – 25:41]

• US labor history cannot be separated from its history of slavery—a “toxic variant” of master servant logic.
• Rights of free white workers, in the 1800s, were defined in opposition to the total lack of rights held by enslaved people.
• After the Civil War and with industrialization, “at-will” employment took root as courts became less concerned with upholding a stark racial (color) divide.

Quote ([22:21] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“The narrative they used to justify slavery was, well, they're dependent on us, we're providing for them. But the economic reality is enslavers... were dependent on the enslaved people.”

4. Modern Manifestations: Contracts, Surveillance, Non-Competes

[32:56 – 38:25]

• Master-servant roots explain the pervasive employer control seen in surveillance, scheduling, and class action waivers.
• Arbitration agreements that limit employee legal recourse descend from more recent statutes rather than master-servant law.
• Control through benefits—especially healthcare—results in “job lock” (workers can’t leave jobs due to restrictive benefits access). ACA (Obamacare) addressed some of this.

Quote ([36:39] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“Before Obamacare... if you had a preexisting condition... you really couldn't leave your job... Obamacare was... one of the most significant employment law reforms... because it made it so much easier to leave a job.”

5. Psychological & Cultural Dimensions

[44:17 – 46:23]

• The enduring “entitlement” of companies to exert authority is more cultural than strictly legal.
• Companies often play defense; policies persist as sediment from previous legal threats, not intentional design.

Quote ([45:19] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“A lot of why the master servant doctrine is around is a cultural idea... a cultural idea that companies have, that management has, about what is owed to them that they continue to advocate for in court.”

6. HR and Discrimination Law

[46:23 – 51:34]

• HR as a discipline rose to support compliance after the 1964 Civil Rights Act, especially Title VII.
• HR often takes the “fall” for managerial decisions (hiring, firing, promotions) it doesn’t actually drive.
• Occupational segregation: HR is dominated by women, which coincides with a decline in status and power vs. older labor management roles, which were largely male and central when unions were stronger.

Quote ([47:06] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“HR really arose and came into its own following the passage of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act... In a way, we expect too much of HR. HR gets blamed for a lot of corporate decisions, when in fact HR is mostly just implementing what managers decide...”

7. Language, Ownership, and Intellectual Property

[27:01 – 32:11]

• Language of modern employment (“talent acquisition,” “human capital”) retains a sense of ownership akin to slavery-era distinctions.
• Laws around non-competes, intellectual property, and the “duty of loyalty” to employers all tie back to the employer’s right to control and profit from workers’ abilities.

Quote ([27:01] – Dart Lindsley):

“So people are our most important asset... talent acquisition, which implies ownership, human capital. And so there are all these terms of ownership that exist in modern employment.”

8. The “Employee as Customer” Debate

[41:18 – 46:05]

• Lindsley argues, employees are free to leave and thus, in some ways, resemble customers exchanging value.
• Tippett: Legally, nothing prevents companies from treating employees as customers; the master-servant model is just one philosophical default, not a legal mandate.

Quote ([44:17] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“If you're thinking about it from the corporate perspective, there's no legal reason you can't treat your employees like customers... there's no reason that you can't take a more egalitarian view towards people who are working for you.”

9. Reflections on Work, Value, and Time

[53:36 – 59:06]

• Tippett reflects on her own job: fulfilling, full of autonomy, and highly valued, but ultimately just one aspect of a meaningful life.
• She emphasizes that time and attention are the true costs and values of work.
• Discussion of how some jobs (like Amazon fulfillment) treat every second of paid work as precious, but not unpaid time (e.g., time spent in required security lines).

Quote ([57:06] – Elizabeth Tippett):

“Even the best job in the world... it's still like a J, O, B... Trading your time on this earth for that job... Other things matter, too. They matter as much.”

Notable Quotes

• On the doctrine’s persistence:
  “The persistence of this really old idea from feudal England seems really strange to me because there's tons of other old ideas... that did not survive to modern day America.”
  — Elizabeth Tippett ([10:24])

• On power and employee speech:
  “In the workplace, the only workers who have a protected right to free speech are government workers... private sector... you don’t have any legally protected rights to free speech. So who decides what you're allowed to say? Your employer.”
  — Elizabeth Tippett ([08:33])

• On non-competes and the duty of loyalty:
  “The duty of loyalty is part of the same idea... The duty of loyalty is the justification for non competes.”
  — Elizabeth Tippett ([30:52])

Important Timestamps

• Introduction & slavery influence: [00:03 – 01:07]
• Define Master Servant Doctrine: [04:17 – 06:11]
• Principles explained (Control, Govern, Support): [11:37 – 20:57]
• Slavery & US law: [22:07 – 25:41]
• Ownership language & IP: [27:01 – 32:11]
• Arbitration and employee rights: [32:56 – 38:25]
• Healthcare & job lock: [36:39 – 41:18]
• "Employees as customers": [41:18 – 46:05]
• HR’s historical roots: [46:23 – 51:34]
• Tippett’s personal reflections: [53:36 – 59:06]

Memorable Moments

• Boilerplate in Employee Handbooks:
  Elizabeth describes how modern HR policies often persist as unexplained, sedimentary “layers.” ([16:00 – 18:17])
• Amazon security lines as example of disregard for worker time:
  Even "the most efficient company in the world" wastes unpaid worker time ([59:06]).
• Reflection on work’s place in life:
  “Even the best job in the world... still just a job. Other things matter, too.” ([57:06])

Episode Takeaways

• The Master Servant Doctrine remains deeply embedded in how American workplaces operate, shaping culture, policy, and law.
• While legal roots matter, most day-to-day employer-employee relationships are also shaped by company culture, inertia, and societal expectations.
• Significant features of today’s workplace—lack of free speech, at-will employment, job-based benefits—all trace back to these inherited frameworks.
• Employers have legal and organizational flexibility to redesign work relationships more equitably; it is largely a matter of will and vision.

For more information on Elizabeth Tippett and her book, search “The Master Servant Doctrine” or visit LizTippet.com.