Tips for Firing An Employee

Not everybody is made to work. Some are too lazy, some others can't perform well and others don't understand the simplest meaning of discipline. For many employers whenever they find such an employee the obvious solution is to fire them. But firing an employee is not exactly a simple task. If you do it the wrong way you could open yourself up to a lawsuit. The employee could possibly sue you for wrongful termination.

The number one rule to remember when you want to fire an employee is that it is for a justifiable reason. If you fire someone because he is smoking in the office there must be a rule forbidding employees to smoke in the office. The rule must be well-defined, written clearly and has been informed to all employees. If you fire someone because he does not performed well you must already have a written definition of what kind of performance you expect from the employees. Do they have to make one sale a day or write ten thousand lines of computer code a day or something else?

This whole thing about written rule is essential. When you terminate an employee for breaking a rule that is unwritten or never been communicated to him then he could have a strong case against you. The court will be more than happy to force you to either take him back or pay big sum of money for the injustice. Never ever fire someone for breaking an unwritten rule. It would be too much of a hassle for you.

Next is to give proper warnings before saying that dreadful "you're fired" words. All warnings should be written and documented. You will need that just in case the employee is hard-headed enough to argue that you didn't give him proper warning before the termination. For the rule-breakers document the time and place of the rule-breaking event. For the low-performers document detail information about their performance and how it compare with the expected performance.

When you give the first warning do not regard it as the initial step of firing your employee but as a chance to let the employee know what went wrong and how to fix it. Let it open for argument. As the employer you can not be right all of the time so give him the chance to defend himself and explain his situation. Aim for a win-win solution for both of you. Who knows maybe the low-performer of the month can be the top-performer the following month.

If the first warning didn't improve the situation and you need to issue the second warning let your employee know that the situation is not looking good for him. However, as the employer you still need to push him to become a better employee. You see, when an employee receive two warnings it can really break his morale. He's expecting that you will fire him any moment now. Tell him that he has one more shot and he better push hard to improve the situation.

Lastly, it's about termination. If two warnings are not doing any good then termination is the logical thing to do. No more excuses, no more chances. Tell him you've tried to be fair with him but you will have to let him go now. Say it firmly so you ex employee understand that there no more room for discussion.