When Employee Termination Makes Sense

Legal Employee Termination Reasons

When you consider an employee termination, it’s easy to get frightened by the consequences of an employee termination going wrong. In my experience, these fears are overblown … if you terminate properly. For more on this, click Employee Termination Guidebook.

In this article, we will discuss when you should fire a problem worker. Let me give you 3 instances when employee termination makes sense.

First, the most clear-cut is when the worker has committed an act of gross misconduct. Examples of gross misconduct are insubordination, fighting, theft, and putting the public in danger. Here’s what you have to be on the watch for with gross misconduct. You must conduct a fair investigation before firing. If you don’t, you may risk a wrongful dismissal charge.

The second instance when you can fire is for poor performance. Examples of this are lack of results, lack of skills, poor quality of results and missing deadlines. In this case, you must document the poor performance and give the worker enough chances to improve.

Finally, you can fire for minor misconduct. Here are some examples of minor misconduct: absenteeism, tardiness, excessive personal calls and telling white lies. Much like firing for performance, you should document the misconduct, give warnings and only fire after giving a final chance. This will keep you out of court.

Let me sum up this article, you can fire for the following three reasons... 1) Gross Misconduct 2) Performance Problems & 3) Repeated minor misconduct. If you follow these simple rules you will be sure of firing for legal reasons. But here is a final warning: Although you may be firing for a legal reason, you must still follow proper procedures or the ex-worker can still find grounds for the a suit. But, please don't keep the problem worker because of this fear. Following proper procedures is easy when you get the knowledge you need.

To learn how to document performance and misconduct problems– and – investigate gross misconduct, you should consider the Employee Termination Guidebook. It covers all this in detail and its procedures will keep you legal in every state in the union. You can learn more about it here.

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