Employee Termination Org

Last week your employee came to work reeking of alcohol. Let's say for argument sake that you run a small trucking firm. You not only smell alcohol on your employee's breath, but you find opened bottles of alcohol in the company truck. Considering this person is a liability not only to you, your company and any other driver on the road, you take immediate action. You fire this employee on the spot. The next week you shockingly discover your former worker has filed a wrongful employee termination lawsuit. How can this be? Are you not in the right under these circumstances? According to the law, you are not.

How to Deal with Alcohol Abuse in the Workplace

Despite what you may think, you cannot use employee termination to rid yourself of an employee with an alcohol problem. Employees who abuse any substance fall under the protective measures of The Americans with Disabilities Act. The courts consider alcoholism to be a disability. Therefore employee termination for alcohol abuse is discrimination, and you will find yourself at the losing end of a court case if you are not careful.

So what do you do? Do you just tolerate this potentially bad situation? The answer is "absolutely not." This employee in his or her current state is a liability for your business. Their mental impairment can create unsafe working conditions not only for themselves, but also for their coworkers. Employees under the influence might also experience a behavior change. They may become abnormally hostile or engage in unprofessional horseplay. Their behavior may turn off customers or vendor representatives. And that will have a direct impact on your business.

3 Familiar Signs Indicating Employee Termination Is Necessary

The act of terminating an employee can be stressful for a human resource person or a small business owner. If the employee has not changed after repeated warnings, both verbal and written, then it can final step for a particular employee’s reform.

You may be asking how terminating an employee can still be seen as part of that person’s job betterment. Simply put, a good business has its roots in the community, and by terminating an employee who does not show up on time or care to put forward enough energy for a job, and then you are doing the community a service. The terminated employee will likely be reflective (after a period of time) on why exactly they were let go. During that time, they will remember what it is you told them and hopefully make changes to correct their behavior.

Terminating an Employee without Distancing Yourself from the Staff

We have all seen the employee who has great social skills, who can make friends with most of the staff, and might even host parties outside of work for their coworkers. What if that very employee underperforms? Do you back away from terminating them, even though it might be the best thing for the work environment? Of course, there are tradeoffs when an employee like that does not perform up to standards. On the one hand, they offer the environment good morale boost, and might be valuable enough to keep on for that reason alone. But if they are constantly distracting and underperforming, and have not listened to several warnings then terminating that person might suit the business the best.

In the small business world, terminating an employee should take place face to face, preferably at the end of a business day, maybe even on late Friday afternoon. By telling the employee in the privacy of an office, at the end of the day, you take away the dramatic effect of others hearing the firing (never fire someone during an angry outburst) and bringing down the attitude of the workplace.

So before you take that final step in terminating an employee, be sure to gather you thoughts, review the files, and approach the situation in a straightforward and dignified way. The employee may react poorly, so you should prepare yourself mentally before going through with the termination. But if you go about terminating an employee from the right angle, then the process should go smooth and not cause any ill effects within the workplace.

Complete procedure for firing a problem employee

Terminating a high level employee can be intimidating if you are a small business owner or a Human Resources Manager. If you are a small business owner, terminating a high level employee may also be emotionally challenging because you have likely formed a close relationship with that person. Nonetheless, you may need to terminate the high level employee for the survival of your business.

Steps to Follow when Terminating a High Level Employee

In many ways, terminating a high level employee is no different from terminating any other employee. It involves gaining proper documentation and having discussions with the employee about his or her poor performance. In addition, you must draft an employee termination letter and conduct an exit interview.

Terminating a high level employee presents its own set of challenges. For example, you will likely need to draft a severance package for the employee. You might also need to negotiate whether you will provide the employee with support in finding a new position. If the termination is amicable, you can also discuss the potential for rehire. You must document all of this information in your employee termination letter.