How do you fire an employee?

Believe it or not I am one of the lucky people that has actually never had to deal with firing someone. Now I am faced with having to let someone go and I am pretty bummed out about the whole thing. I hate being the bearer of bad news, even though this person really needs to go. Any suggestions or tips?

All replies are appreciated. Thanks,

Olly

This is always a hard one Olly. Unfortunately, the only way you can fire someone is to make it short, sweet, and avoid confrontation. What I mean by that is during the disciplinary process (verbal warning, written warning, suspension, termination), it is very important to point out the BEHAVIOR that is unacceptable..and not make it a personal attack. It is not character flaws that cause people to get into trouble...it is behavior issues that do. You must not get emotionally involved in the disciplinary issues (easier said than done...especially when you only have a few employees). You have to make everything to the point, point out what was done wrong, how it can be improved, and what happens next time it happens again. I dont mean to be long winded...but it is a complicated process if you want to avoid being sued. In most states now, not only can the establishment be sued...but so can the manager personally. Anyway...I hope this helps a little.

Scott

[UniChef]

when you don't get bummed out about having to fire someone it's time to get out of the business.

Why are you firing this person,???
I think straight forward, dont appologise for what you are doing, explain the reasons why wish them a good future and get them out of your office!!!!!

[Nicko]

Welcome to the forums Aubergine, great point to! I think clearly you need to be straight forward and just tell them that they need to move on. I do think though that this topic raises an interesting question in the legal sense. Are there certain things we can and can't do when firing someone? What are some do's and dont's of firing from the legal standpoint?

-I know for one you cannot bad mouth the person (pretty obvious). I also know that once they leave you can't really give them a bad reference (which I never understood). By that I mean if another place calls and wants to know how they were as an employee then you cannot say "oh they were the worst employee I ever had". Saying something that slanders the person can get you sued. Any other thoughts?

[Jim]

In the corporate world, we must (!) document everything! If there are missed shifts, inappropriate behavior, interpersonal conflicts, performance... it must go on paper. Only after you have written a novel on a 'troubled' employee can you move forward with the disiciplinary steps. Larger corporations, I think, are easy targets for frivolous lawsuits by unhappy employees that have been terminated. Also, all of our wording, be it in written form or verbally, is under scrutiny. An example, you can't really comment on somebody's "attitude" because there is no way to measure attitude. You can, however, discuss misconduct.
Furthermore, it is so costly to even challenge a lawsuit for a disgruntled employee, we just pay the ex-employee to avoid a drawn-out court battle.

I have moved here from another country and can still not understand why you cannot be honest with a person when they call up and say ...".So how was this person at doing this job.." That is a reason why people get into jobs that they cant handle ...
I think the legal question in this country to use is "Would you rehire this person? " Right???
My first job ever here (USA) at a supervisory level was a nightmare because of this.
What is the American obsession with sueing everyone for the littlest thing!!!
I dont mean to offend anyone but, now at least I know what all our tax dollars are doing for us!!!!
Only the lawyers are getting rich .....

Where are you from originally Aubergine? I think most of us would agree with you when you talk about people being sue happy around here. It is actually doing the country more harm them good in my opinion. The fact remains, that you cannot defame a person in anyway when another employer calls for a reference. If they ask did the person show up each day for work you can say no. You cannot say "Oh no way man, that guy was as lazy as can be". Say that and you will have trouble. Why??? Because there are extremely lazy people in this world who take more time to learn the system then their jobs so they can get all the free money they can. I have seen this happen a million times and it will keep on happening until people wake up.