Have You Fired Anyone Lately

Don't say anything they could even dream of using in a court of law against you or your firm. Don't mention anything medical, mentally ill, etc.
Have documented the problem areas, dates, times, who involved, etc. that show a little bit of history, if he was talked to about it, who talked to him and when, and what was said, what was agreed upon, and the results, good or bad.

Just tell them they were hired to do X, Y and Z, and they are not getting the job done, and you need to make a change. I've had to do this twice to folks that worked for me, AND I've been a victim of a downsizing, and a company closure, it's not fun no matter what end you are on.

And do it before the holidays get here (soon).

 

No matter what you do or how you try to do it, you can always have a problem. Follow the letter of the employee agreement they accepted upon hiring and hold on. Keep everything well documented and be prepared to present your case to a labor board lifer if it gets that far.

Who knows, maybe the yahoo will quickly find another job and not focus on you in order to live off the state?

 

Follow the employee handbook guidelines.

Repremand in writting with opportunities to change.

Do this three times if required

If employee dosen't follow guidelines, shake hands and wish them well.

 

Document EVERYTHING! Have no unwitnessed conversations. You definately want to avoid any situation where it is a "he said, she said" because HR will side with him to avoid any potential discrimination suit. You need hard, witnessed facts.

I remember one guy I fired for failing to show up for work and failing to call in, we tried to contact him for a week without success and then terminated him. 2 days later I was informed that I needed to change his personnel change form from "terminated" to "on leave with pay". He had called HR and said I created a hostile work environment for him. I guess being fired would qualify as a hostile work environment. In the end, they ended up transferring him but he still kept his job. I was the second person to try and fire him. Some people just know how to play the game.

 

Some people you fire will sue no matter what documentation you have of poor work performance.

Sounds like you need to get buy in from the VPs he in good with. Or you may find yourself in a bind. If he really is a kiss up typically VPs can spot that. But some like having suck ups around.

If you can get them to resign it is better. Offer a severance package that requires them to sign a letter stating they won't sue. I found it better in some cases to pay them off then deal with the resource sucking lawyers.

 

Watch Silkwood.

 

They tried that with me 5 years ago, and it's illegal. I didn't sign the papers - they wanted me to say I voluntarily resigned (when they downsized 4 of us - all over the age of 40), I said no, we changed them to say I was downsized and laid off, but the hanging of the carrot in front of me is illegal, here anyway.
I got a severence deal, but I didn't sue them because my wife still works there and makes good money, I didn't want her to get axed as well.

 

Illegal? I don't see how.
Perhaps it's the wording and delivery.

Not like i forced anyone to do anything. Most took it- some don't.

 

I'm guessing it's not the letter that was considered illegal. I think he feels he had an age discrimination case and didn't want to wave his rights.

 

You say HR has thier official plan? What is thier plan? They should be helping you with this whether they want to or not.

 

Age discrimination had nothing to do with it, I had two lawyers look at the document and say 'they can't do that', one of the lawyers is the best labor guy in the state. They can't force you to sign something that isn't true in order to 'get something' on the back end.
They wanted me to sign a document stating I resigned of my own free will, and that simply wasn't true. Some folks wouldn't think twice and sign it, but it just wasn't right, so I refused. They changed it to say I was layed off, and I signed it.
Again, you may not think the wording is a big deal, but to me it was, and there was nothing in it about promising not to sue, even though I was told that is also unenforceable as well (if it was in there).

 

You may have a mountain of accusations against you or the company, that's why it's incredibly important to DOCUMENT everything that was said, everything that took place, because you won't remember 'by memory'.
If it came down to a lawsuit, stuff in writing looks a lot better.

 

I understand now..........

But apperently they didn't force you.

 

Didn't force me to what ? Resign ? It was that or be fired, and they didn't have just cause, although they don't need it. They were trying to avoid a bad situation, and so was I.
It was all moot just 2 years after the above, as they were bought out and the entire department was eliminated, 35 people, including the VP. Most of the folks then got 1/4 of the severence I got, so I was lucky in some respects.

 

They don't have any kind of policy for handling this sort of thing? Maybe you need to go further up the HR ladder. Surely they don't want the person coming back and suing because it wasn't handled properly. It just seems like if this is an organization of any size they should have someone to help you with this. In fact it would be in thier best interest to have someone else take care of the deed when it comes to that. Should be someone in a higher position of authority than the person's direct supervisor.

If not, do like has been mentioned above and document everything you can. One thing about poor performance is that it is often subjective, hard to document and prove. It's a lot easier to prove violations of a contract like not calling in. Then it becomes a disciplinary problem and not subjective performance related.

Good luck, it's never fun dealing with something like this.

 

When our hospital fires someone they NEVER give a reason. I am sure that they document any deficiencies the employee has along the way. They also have "corrective action" meetings, etc. But the day you are fired, no reason is given. All employment is "at will." Bye-Bye.

This is what the legal counsel has suggested, and they have done it for years...