Managing People - Firing Employees
The Lowdown on Firing Employees

The Lowdown on Firing Employees

You need to prepare carefully before firing someone. You need to be ready to become fully engaged in what may become a very demanding encounter.

How you handle a firing will have a tremendous impact on how the employee feels about himself, you, and your company. This will, in turn, effect your chance of being sued. In addition, a poorly handled firing will have a negative impact on morale throughout your entire organization.

The decision to wait on a firing

How much time should you give an employee to improve his or her performance? There really aren’t any specific guidelines. One thing to take into consideration, however, is the employee’s length of service with your company. Loyalty does count. Give an employee who has served you for several years a few months to work out his or her performance deficits.

Remember too, that when you fire a long-term employee the negative effect on the morale of other employees will be far greater than, say, if you were to fire a recent hire. And when you work together with long-term employees in an effort to help them improve their job output, and ideally keep them gainfully employed, you create goodwill throughout the company.

On the other hand, if an employee shows poor work habits, has unsatisfactory skill levels, or displays attitude problems during the provisional ninety-day employment period, don’t hesitate to fire him or her. (But beware of the legal risks—the courts do not recognize “provisional” employment periods.)

The decision to fire

While firing should definitely be a last-resort measure, many managers, especially newly minted ones, hesitate to terminate an employee until it is long overdue.

As demonstrated throughout the section on problem employees, by carefully working with an employee many performance shortcomings can be resolved. An employee’s job achievement can be improved through care.

If these “gentle” tactics don’t work, however, you must move on to a firm verbal warning that makes mandatory a work quality or attitude improvement and cites specific suggestions for effecting such an improvement. If that fails, issue a written warning. Some people just require the jolt of a firm warning to shift their work performance into high gear.

Of course, during the period when you are working with an employee in an attempt to improve their performance, you run the risk of having them decide to seek employment elsewhere. This risk increases if a written warning is handed down. If the employee quits or submits his or her resignation, that’s OK. It is a lot easier to lose weak performers through their own proactive decisions.