HOW TO EFFECTIVELY FIRE AN EMPLOYEE

Leading the Employee Who Won’t be Led – Effective Termination

Ask anyone in the workplace and they will tell you there’s always one.  That one problem employee who hasn’t read the management books and doesn’t know they’re supposed to be motivated, team players who “think outside the box”, etc., etc.

I once read that 60% of employees will take on the traits of the boss, 30% are self-managed, and 10% are unmanageable.

We spend millions of dollars and countless hours dealing with this bottom 10%.

We hear, ad nauseam, about the cost of hiring and training new employees versus keeping the current ones – including the 10%.  What we don’t often hear is the damage done by bad employees – and bad managers.

As an “expert” and professional development trainer, I am supposed to believe that every employee is salvageable. As a manager with over 20 years of experience, I am convinced that there are some people who can’t be lead, at least not by you.

For these people, we have neglected to train managers on the value of a justified and legal discharge.  Yes, a good ol’ fashioned firing. 

Thousands of successful lawsuits are filed every year because companies don’t have processes, or courage, to deal with out-of-control staffers and managers.  A dozen states have passed or are proposing legislation to deal with “workplace bullying”.  Why? Because the courts recognize corporate Americas reluctance to deal with these issues. Our litigious society has made companies, HR departments, and managers downright scared to terminate problem employees.

 However, when you are faced with the unavoidable, here are five tips for terminating your “unleadable” staffer:

• An employee handbook establishes an agreement between employer and employee.  It’s amazing how well the problem employees know the handbook.  If you have a handbook, it’s important that you know it inside and out and follow it consistently.
• Even good employees sometimes make bad decisions. There are certain transgressions, in every company, that are grounds for immediate termination (i.e., insubordination, violence, job abandonment, etc.).  When those transgressions occur, have the courage to take action.  This is not monopoly and there is no free pass or get out of jail card.  Remember, what you allow becomes the norm.  Don’t let outrageous behavior become the standard in your business or department.
• Document, document, document! Enough said.  Okay, one last time – document.
• If you are prepared, fully justified, and have proper documentation, a termination meeting should be quite brief.  Within the first minute, the employee should know their new status as ex-employee.  Prolonging the meeting is unnecessary, unfair, and dangerous.  Prolonged discussion may cause you, or the employee, to say things that will only make matters worse.   This may seem callous in this age of kind leadership, but how kind is it to take 30 minutes to tell someone they have been fired.
• Be discrete and have a plan.  Most larger organizations have a clear discharge process.  Do you?  I have seen smaller non-profits and business owners harmed by not having a clear termination plan.   How will the employee get their belongings?  Has network access been terminated?  Have you prepared an exit package, so the employee doesn’t have an excuse to come or call back?  Do we need security?  Will we notify vendors, suppliers, and clients?

Finally, always maintain your composure.  Terminating an employee, even a bad one, is never easy.  Keep in mind what you want to accomplish – a relatively professional departure.  The last employee I terminated, literally dared me to fire him.  A vision of red flashed before my eyes, but I remembered this last step, and the rest is unemployment history.