How To Fire an Employee

The most important tip to terminate an employee is to do so on Monday at the end of the workday. 

Most often people wait until Friday to terminate an employee. The challenge, this gives the person the entire weekend to think about what has happened. If there are mental health challenges, this can exasperate their challenges.

When terminating on Monday, the person has the opportunity to begin looking for work right away… and they have the entire week to do so. This allows the person to be productive immediately and will likely feel less loss than if given the weekend to run things over and over in their mind.

Meeting the person at the end of the day allows for less disruption for the other employees and allows for the terminated employee to not have to do “the walk of shame” after leaving the office.

Dignity is retained.  

Each state has different laws as to the reasons you can fire someone. In an “at will” state like Arizona, an employer does not need a reason. While this is legal, it is still best practice to provide a clear and concise reason for the termination. If possible, talk about the skill or behavior that is lacking in a manner that is not accusatory.

An example would be, “For the last quarter, we needed each employee to generate 25 sales each month. You were able to generate 17 on average each month. Unfortunately, that does not meet the minimum requirements to meet our budget.” This however, should not be a surprise. Performance reviews and corrective action plans should already have been in place to assist the employee to meet the standards.

 If the termination is due to reorganization, state that. Give some accolades on performance and offer to write a letter of recommendation if the person performed well.

The termination should be done in person. Definitely not via email. If the employee is a remote employee, then video conference rather than phone would be best. Again, this helps the person retain some dignity.

It’s good practice and it’s just the right thing to do. 

Finally, when firing an employee have an HR representative in the meeting. If HR is not available, then have another member of management in the meeting as a witness. The employee may become agitated, distressed, or angry. It’s imperative that you remain calm and have a witness of the behaviors in the room and what was said. The last thing you need is a lawsuit for wrongful termination. Be sure to document everything that was done and said in the meeting as well as who the attendees were. 

If you would like to discuss more in detail how to terminate an employee, or would like to discuss leadership training for your organization, give me a call.