Is employee misconduct driving you crazy? Read this
before taking action.
There are many reasons that make it necessary for an employee
dismissal. As unpleasant as the idea of employee dismissal
might seem, business owners and Human Resource Managers can
approach it in a well thought out way to minimize the negative
feelings associated with “letting people go.”
Some of the reasons for employee dismissal are circumstantial.
* Business and technological changes in recent years have
made it necessary for employees to develop new skills. There
are instances where some of those employees either cannot master
the skills or simply refuse to do so. That brings the business
owner face-to-face with the need to eliminate a problem they
cannot solve in any other way.
* Downsizing is a business need that confronts businesses
both big and small. Asian countries such as Japan have had
to learn the lesson that in today’s global economy with
all its fluctuations and changes, the day of “employment
for life” has become financially impossible.
* Automation that replaces people in the workforce is also
a reality of our age. Labor-intensive tasks cannot keep pace
with automated competitors and businesses must stay abreast
of the times or go out of business altogether. Unfortunately,
this fact produces the same need to reduce the workforce.
And those are the easy ones--some employee dismissal is distasteful.
* The employee is not doing his or her job for whatever reason.
It is one of those situations that nobody likes to deal with,
but left alone it will not get better all by itself. There
is a dire need for the manager to take immediate action.
* There are times when an employee becomes a liability the
business cannot afford to support. For example, a refusal to
wear protective devices, smoking in undesignated areas, or
after repeated warnings for misconduct create situations where
dismissal is the eventual consequence.
The “when” may be clear, but the “how” is
another matter altogether.
When the need for employee dismissal arises, it rarely comes
as a surprise to either the employer or the employee involved.
Consciously or subconsciously, the employee facing termination,
will often begin offensive behavior to make it more difficult
to let him or her go. An employee-employer stalemate of this
kind can only make it worse and the manager must address this
immediately.
To borrow from a late President of the United States, the
employer has nothing to fear but fear itself. That is, of course,
if the employer has followed all the legalities associated
with employee relations. Unless the dismissal is disciplinary
in nature because of employee misconduct, there are successful
ways of easing the separation anxiety of everyone involved.
Severance packages and job relocation services may be a part
of the termination interview. Tactful language and providing
a way of leaving the business with dignity in front of other
employees are conditions for making the termination process
less painful for everyone involved.
Our
recommended termination procedures for misconduct and poor
performance
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