Parting Ways & Separation

Obviously there will be a time when an employee leaves a job at your location.

They may leave because they get promoted to some other role within the company, dismissed because they don’t meet performance expectations or quit because they find a better job, relocate, go to school, or just prefer to no longer with at your company.

Respectful Dismissal

Unless an employee has done something criminal or is putting other employees in danger, we suggest you follow this advice found on the Entrepreneur website when you need to dismiss an employee. Below is a summary of the steps. Read the full article or download the PDF for details.

How To Compassionately Fire Someone

• Check your past feedback – have you only provided positive feedback and perhaps they are not aware of their poor performance?
• Give the a warning – allow the employee a chance to correct their performance.
• Focus on specific behavior goals – be specific on what needs to be improved.
• Fire early in the week, and never on a Friday.
• Make it short, sweet, and to the point.
• Do not let the employee linger – this helps to prevent any possible bad behavior by the upset employee.
• Reassign the terminated employee’s job duties promptly – by informing other employees that the person has left and re-assigning responsibilities it prevents rumors and allows the workflow to continue.
• Get the job done – holding on to an employee who is not doing their job properly, poisons your workplace by allowing harmful behavior to continue and sends signals to other employees that they can get away with similar behavior.

Finally, we have learned that our industries are very small. Someone you had working for you today, could be your boss tomorrow. As they say, don’t burn any bridges.