February 10, 2011
Firing Employees - Otherwise, you may lay off the jobholder only
Otherwise, you may lay off the jobholder only to find yourself in the middle of a improper termination law suit. Meet with Workers Individually: Understand that some workers will find the dismissal more difficult to accept. The personnel individual should give the grounds for firing, telling the executive that they can dispute the claims through the proper channels. They are ruling small companies must follow accepted dismissal practices because this conforms to the "public good." So, even if you have only 3 personnel, you could lose a illegal separation suit when you separate someone for an wrongful reason. More likely, you want to sack her because her performance is below average or because the company can no longer afford the higher wages and benefits associated with her seniority. These personnel know when they come to work that management may separate them "at any time for any reason." However, a wise employer will not look this solely from her or his own perspective. You don't ever want to give the employee the idea that your layoff is open for debate or discussion.
While you'll normally give a rank-in-file worker only 30 days to increase between warnings, an executive should have at least 90 days. This is the case even if you had good reason to separate that person. Therefore, a small company owner or personnel individual should keep the termination private and away from the eye of the workplace. Since this is just a sample termination letter, you should change it for the small company circumstances. Many owners don't separate a difficult individual because they fear a legal action or other lawsuit. This way they do not have to come up with the number of warnings an employee can receive on a case-by-case basis. The only way to deal with a bad employee effectively is to let them know right away there are consequences to their actions. You can do this through escalating discipline, which is set up to try to help upgrade the jobholder's performance.