Firing

Shawnee Love   •  
July 5, 2010

Angel of death. Grim Reaper. The Terminator.

Sad to say, but those are just a few of the monikers I held during the bad old days when the tech bubble burst and I had the horrid responsibility of assisting companies with figuring out who to let go. It’s not a skill I want to be good at, but I’d rather be good at it (i.e., respectful, considerate, professional, thorough) than bad.

If you are thinking about firing an employee, the first thing you have to figure out is whether it is for cause or not.

If it is a termination for cause, then be sure you have your facts right, check the law, check the employment contract and proceed accordingly. Don’t forget to paper it.

If it isn’t for cause, do all the same stuff and plan to owe notice or pay in lieu. In my humble opinion, you should also think about severance because it is someone’s livelihood you are talking about. Better yet, perhaps there is an other option you can look at (I have a great example in a future blog.)

If it could be for cause, but you don’t want to put the employee on the street with nothing, then we should talk.

I don’t know why I am on this topic other than it comes up so often right now that I feel I need to. More on terminations over the upcoming weeks.