Firing Employees

Sometimes it is hard to admit that an employee should be fired.  However, not handling a situation will drag down morale.  The unhappy employee or employee that is not doing their job will undermine your authority, and alienate customers.  There isn’t any business that can afford the financial burden and emotional costs of a problem employee. 

You recognize that there is a problem.  Now your question is, what can be done?  Make sure that you have tried talking to this person to rectify the situation.  If things do not improve and you decide you must fire this employee, make sure to do it in an ethical, legal and compassionate manner.

No one likes the job of firing an employee.  Here are some tips to help you through the process.

1.      Admit that there is a problem.  Do not just overlook customer comments, personnel comments, and problems that you have noticed yourself.  The decision to fire an employee can become colored.  There may be a fear of hurting an employee’s feelings, this may be a friend of yours, everyone may like this person whether they are doing their job or not.  You must be the manager and make tough decisions.

2.      Carefully document any and all problems.  Keep track of customer complaints, tardiness if they are always late, and breach of company policies.  Note, some company policies such as stealing, drugs, threatening behavior, and harassment, should be dealt with immediately.  Again, make sure there is documentation.

3.      Tell the person about the documentation.  Hopefully, you as a manager are taking the time to discuss the problems with the employee.  They deserve the right to know that you are documenting this information.  Also, they deserve the right to clean up their act.  We all go through things in our lives that may affect our work performance.  We may not even realize that this is happening.  Unless someone takes the time and has the guts to tell that employee, he/she will never know.  Too often, in work settings, everyone else knows that there is a problem except the person or people involved.

4.      Schedule private meetings.  Keep the information in that room!!! I can’t stress this enough.  Outline your concerns in a positive yet firm manner.  Tell the person exactly what needs to be done to improve their job performance.  Leave nothing to be guessed at later.  The goal of any meeting of this nature should be to have an action plan to help the employee make the changes quickly and get back on track. 

5.      Only after trying to keep the employee through meetings, documentation, and help, should you fire an employee. 

Before deciding to fire this employee, make sure that the reasons are not for any below:

§         Race

§         Color

§         Sex

§         Religion

§         Pregnancy

§         National origin

§         Disability

Under the Civil Rights Act of 1964, employers are prohibited from discriminating against applicants and employees on the basis of any reason listed above.

You have tried your best to make things work with an employee.  Now comes the job of firing this employee.  How should you do it?  There are two ways to approach this. 

1.      Nicely.  You can give the employee 1-2 days advance notice to allow this employee to leave gracefully.  There is a danger to this method!!!  The person may stir up trouble with the remaining employees.  You may get soft and change your mind. 

2.      The quick surprise method.  Call the employee into your office on a Friday afternoon.  Tell them nicely but directly that they are fired and the reason why.  Have them clean out their work area.  There is less chance of a chain reaction from other employees.

 

Make sure that on this last day, you collect the building keys, employee manuals, customer files, printed company material, and any other company property.  It is nice to give the employee their last check at this time.  Making sure to have any unused sick pay or vacation pay calculated and included in the check. 

You may offer the employee a good job referral.  You may offer the employee assistance with an employment agency.  Make sure that when you fire an employee you do it quickly, nicely, and as easy as possible.

 

Reference:

MyLawyer.com.  (2000).  Available: http://www.divorcelawinfo2.com/mylawyer/guideview.asp?layer=3&article=193