Four Things Not to Do When Firing Someone

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28 August 2018. When it comes to laying off an employee or firing them, it can be a difficult time for everyone involved. Not only does it make work more tricky for you and places you in an uncomfortable situation, it impacts the employee on a big scale. Even if you have communicated well about their performance and their risk of losing their job, very few people actually think that they will get fired. It has been shown that even when there is a good reason to let someone go, the average employer waits a long time to do anything about it. No doubt double checking that it is the right thing to be doing.

But as a leader in business, you want what is best for the business. Wasting time and money on an employee that is not contributing as they should isn’t something that you need to tolerate. So as long as the process has been approached in the right way, you need to think about firing people in the right way. Here are some of the things that you should not do when it comes to firing employees.

Don’t fire unless you are face-to-face

We get it, it can be an awkward conversation to have, but you simply can’t fire someone on the phone or over email, for example. Even a letter isn’t a good way to go. You need to make sure that you are doing it face to face. It gives them time to ask questions if appropriate, and for you to lay things out and what you expect from them.

Don’t fire without warning

Unless there is something extreme that happens that calls for immediate dismissal, you need to give people notice and warning. It could be a meeting with them where you state that if results aren’t achieved or something similar happens then they will get fired. You shouldn’t just call someone into an office to fire them, as there are certain procedures that you have to follow.

Don’t fire during other circumstances

As has been said, you should always been looking to fire someone when you can do so face to face. If an employee is off work sick, on maternity leave, or unable to work for a time due to a car accident, then you need to wait until they are back to work. As the Lichtenstein Law Group PLC shows on their site, many people who have been off work due to an injury from an accident, could get compensation. You don’t want to add unfair dismissal to the claim.

Don’t fire without a witness

There can be some countries around the world where sueing can be quite commonplace. And if you fire someone without any witness, then it can be your word against theirs if they decided to sue you because they think they were fired unfairly (or other circumstances). A union member or a member of the human resources department is usually someone that would be present. Just make sure someone is there and that notes are taken.

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