Sign Termination Made Easy

Sign termination

member sin number one terminating rashly and a fit of anger Tom you're fired that's the last straw you're out of here and I mean now there are at least three things wrong with an on-the-spot termination people don't make good decisions when they're emotionally overwrought there are many factors to consider before terminating and being disrespectful encourages people to sue bottom line wait until you talk to HR sin number two terminating in public especially in a humiliating way did you see that catch a key Brandon made last night at Wasowski I can't believe that somebody could just stretch out that much another coffee break bill you know I think you're little too lazy and a little too slow to be in this job I'll make an example out of you you're fired oh I'm sorry I forgot about that Chris whoever thought you were manager material should be fired right along with you you're done here get your things and go public humiliation is a lawsuit magnet there's no good reason to treat people this way and a host of reasons to avoid it another similar problem is the perp walk that is when you publicly march someone to the door carrying a box of belongings with a security escort that's begging for a lawsuit I never would have thought of stealing but the way they humiliated me will you help me take them down absolutely Chris you made the right call you came to the right place send number three terminating without checking with HR let's today your last day I'll talk to HR to manage the administrative details HR is going to take forever on this I want this nutjob going today Miller get in here HR needs to be able to evaluate a number of factors before there is any termination consistency have other similarly situated employees been fired if not there's a lawsuit brewing appropriateness is this a significant enough infraction the termination is reasonable contract is there a contract or agreement that the termination would violate or maybe an implied contract of good faith and fair dealing special circumstance perhaps the whole department is going to be let go or maybe there's some situation of which the manager is not aware for example a complaint has been filed send number for termination that looks like retaliation well you're fired for your poor performance but let me add it you're not much of a team player you complain to my boss and you win to a government agency so Cindy you want 12 weeks of bonding leave during the busy season well why don't we just make that leave permanent I don't care that you just filed suit you're fired whenever a termination closely follows a protected act there will be an obvious suggestion of retaliation that's a tough one to defend unless there is very strong documentation it's best to do a thorough evaluation in these situations frustrating as it is people who file complaints do have at least to some extent an umbrella of protection over them now what does closely follows mean of course it's a gray area but most experts agree that weeks is closed and months so close however if there is any other evidence linking the two ads all bets are off no matter how great the time difference send number five offering a false basis for a termination I'm sorry to tell you this time but because of severe budget cuts we're going to have to let you go budget cuts aren't really all that bad it's just I don't want to tell her it's it's her performance and it's bad enough she's getting fired ah Sally I'm so sorry I had to tell you this I mean really I mean this hurts me this really hurts me deep down inside but I'm sorry to have to tell you but as you know things are changing around here and well unfortunately your jobs it's been eliminated not really but John whose performance is worse it's a golf of money managers often want to soften the blow of a termination by blaming it on budget cuts or department reorganizations or the company is going in a different direction the problem comes when you rehire and the former employee finds out about it he or she will assume that since the given reason was false the termination was because of discrimination or retaliation the jury will ponder the question was the manager laying then or is the manager lying now either way the managers a liar sent number six terminating without a reason on the basis of at-will I don't have to give you any reason why admiring you yeah right well it's true that unless there's a formal contract of some kind most employees are at will and that means they can be terminated at any time for any reason or for no reason and the flipside is that they can leave at any time but here's a newsflash people don't like to be fired and they're not going to blame themselves they typically have no reason to think their performance is subpar so the reason must be because of their protected status that is their raised their sex their age their disability now your company is in trouble you have to begin your defense by proving that yes your managers are so stupid that they fire employees for no reason and then you have to explain why no reason is more likely than the alleged illegal reason it's not going to go well send over seven terminating without proper documentation why do I need documentation the guy's a poor performer and I want him out of here do I have documentation about the performance of the employee at fire this morning well not yet but I'll resend them for you the trouble with this scenario terminating with no backup evidence of poor performance is that there is usually documentation that shows good performance typically since the person hasn't been terminated before his or her performance reviews read good or satisfactory now this is like the offering a false reason problem you are essentially saying to the jury trust me when I say that I lied on the performance reviews finally never falsify documents or date them back to the time of the alleged infraction you'll get found out and then you'll really see an angry judge send number eight not giving the employee a chance to explain yeah you got a second can't this is the third time your leg I smell I know I know you know what I don't even care why the time for excuses is over you're gone get out hey can I talk to you for some Kevin this is the third time you're late I just I know I know I know I'm late but I just found out my daughter has cancer I had to schedule some planets oh my god I'm so stop it sit down yeah let's talk true there's no legal requirement to give employees a chance to explain but juries will view it as a basic element of fairness in a situation like the one in the scenario the jury's sympathies are not going to be with the manager here's another scenario a young woman transferred into a new position at her company she was late the first few mornings and the new boss wanted to fire her HR suggested that he talked to the employee come to find out she was actually coming in an hour early to train her replacement at the old job and then rushing downstairs to the new one a few minutes late you'll be glad to know she didn't get fired sin number nine terminating on your own we do need to check with anyone it's a termination offense and that's it it's generally better to have a group involved in deciding on a termination for a number of reasons there may be other people on the team like the HR manager in a better position to judge the appropriateness of the termination a group decision shows that careful consideration was given to the matter since litigation can go on for years and since managers can come and go it's in the organization's best interest to have several managers the mayor with the case send over ten terminating without preparation I don't care about checklists and benefits I want this person gone now well I guess we need to talk you know sometimes things don't always work out the way we like them to so it puts us in some difficult situations sometimes let's face it terminations prompt many lawsuits and experience suggests that the decision of whether to sue or not is often influenced by how the person was treated during the termination so take the time to be prepared know what you're going to say this lets whoever is handling the termination better control the conversation and keep it from becoming too long too emotional or too unclear and delivery and message also determine who is going to do what what documents need to be available what procedures need to be followed what references will be given final pay and so on treating the terminated employee with respect goes a long way toward preventing expensive and productivity draining lawsuits and charges okay that's our 10 cents of termination did we get them all let me know at s bruce @ b lr com4 terminations and for all your HR challenges we recommend HR BL are calm this is Steve Bruce for BL r s HR daily advisor