People Management 101 – Firing Employees

If you are like most people, no matter what your personality, firing someone is not on the top of your fun list. Even so – termination is the last step in your management resource bag and you should only resort to letting an employee go after you have taken steps to help the employee improve their attitude or performance. If coaching and discipline options have failed – then it is probably time to discontinue their employment with your organization.

I cannot stress enough as a manager, executive and business owner your decision to terminate the employee needs to be above reproach. Make sure you consider all the potential ramifications, legal and otherwise. In most states, if you have documented all inappropriate behavior the employee has displayed – you should be in the clear from any legal consequences. However you better make sure you have a strong paper trail.

Terminating someone will most often have a powerful and emotional impact on the rest of your staff, some positive and some negative. So once you have terminated the employee, be sure to communicate to the remaining staff that the employee is no longer employed at the company.

Prior to terminating an employee, notify or meet with any departments that need to know about the termination – especially payroll, human resources, your building management and your IT department. They will need some time to draft the appropriate paperwork, paychecks, severance packages, plus revoke network and computer privileges and access to the building.

A word about termination
There are two types of termination, voluntary and  involuntary, they are different, but the results are the same.

• Voluntary termination – an employee resigns from his or her position.  Resignations occur for a variety of reasons: a new job, relocating, and retirement, or you may allow an employee to resign instead of being terminated.
• Involuntary termination – an employer fires the employee or removes the employee from his or her position and the company. An involuntary termination is usually the result of an employer’s dissatisfaction with an employee.

When to fire an employee
Historically – late Friday afternoon was considered the ideal time to terminate someone. Although – I would advise letting the employee go as soon as feasible. If the employee is disruptive to the workforce then the sooner the better. There is no written rule – so you your best judgement.

A word about final wages
In the state of California the law is clear about when an employee must be paid their final wages. Click here is see a detailed list. I have provided a summary below.

• An employee who is discharged must be paid all of his or her wages, including accrued vacation, immediately at the time of termination.
• A group of employees who are laid off by reason of the termination of seasonal employment in the curing, canning, or drying of any variety of perishable fruit, fish or vegetables, must be paid within 72 hours after the layoff.
• An employee without a written employment contract for a definite period of time who gives at least 72 hours prior notice of his or her intention to quit, and quits on the day given in the notice, must be paid all of his or her wages, including accrued vacation, at the time of quitting.
• An employee without a written employment contract for a definite period of time who quits without giving 72 hours prior notice must be paid all of his or her wages, including accrued vacation, within 72 hours of quitting. An employee who quits without giving 72-hours prior notice may request that his or her final wage payment be mailed to a designated address. The date of mailing will be considered the date of payment for purposes of the requirement to provide payment within 72 hours of the notice of quitting.
• The place of the final wage payment for employees who are terminated (or laid off) is the place of termination. The place of final wage payment for employees who quit without giving 72 hours prior notice and who do not request that their final wages be mailed to them at a designated address, is at the office of the employer within the county in which the work was performed.

Severance pay
Severance pay is also known as separation or termination pay and is paid to an employee in the event they leave a company. Unless an employment contract exists, employers are not required to pay severance pay. Although – severance pay is often offered in exchange for a general release of all claims and an agreement not to bring legal action against the company.

Many companies use an unwritten rule that defines one week of severance pay for every year employed with the company. So if an employee worked for a company for five years – they would be paid five weeks of severance pay. As mentioned above, by law severance pay is not required, however it is considered ethical.

The termination meeting
Schedule a meeting with the employee, however I found it is best to only give the employee a couple of minutes notice as not to worry or upset them while they wait. It is best to have a secondary person attend the meeting to validate, document and verify the termination. Your best choice for this is someone from human resources.

Explain to the employee that you are letting them go, why you are letting them go and provide them with any documentation, final paychecks and severance packages. NOTE: During this meeting is when your IT department should revoke their computer access.

If you can, this is a good idea to conduct an exit interview, which will allow you and the employee to assess the issues that are driving the decision for their termination. Providing two-way feedback can help both the employee and the company.

Once the meeting is complete have someone escort the employee back to their desk to collect any personal property and then out the front door. NOTE: You can use your own judgement about this, if the employee is not hostile and seems sincere you might allow them to leave on their own, also giving them a chance to say goodbye to the remaining staff.

Final thoughts
Most managers wait to long to terminate an employee, and either the company or other employees suffer until the employee is gone.

Sometimes it is a manager who needs to be fired, if this is the case, then you should have a department head, COO or the CEO talk to the affected department employees about the termination, explain what just happened and who will now manage them and the department. Nobody like being left in the dark.