Most bosses don’t like to fire people, but you have to do it sometimes. You might have a person who demonstrates incompetence. Maybe they keep showing up late, or they’re insubordinate.
Employees need to do the job properly and show you the proper respect. If you’ve given someone several chances and it seems clear they won’t learn their lesson, a time might come when you need to terminate them for the company’s sake.
When you fire someone, you should follow certain rules to make the experience as painless as possible for everyone involved. In this article, we’ll talk about the criteria for firing someone that should help you get through it.
Fire Them At The Work Day’s Conclusion
You should know how to properly terminate an employee and what time you do that will likely come into play. It’s best to fire someone at the work day’s conclusion rather than during the middle of the day.
If you tell someone you’re firing them when the workday concludes, they won’t have as much of a chance to interact with other employees and customers negatively. Some workers will take a dismissal from a company gracefully, but others will feel disgruntled and might try to cause problems before you can get them off the premises.
If you fire them when the day concludes, you will likely not have any clients or customers around with whom the ex-employee can interact. They also probably won’t interact with any other workers, which is for the best. An ex-worker talking to current employees can hurt the company’s overall morale.
Have Security Escort Them Off The Premises
If you have security working in your building, you should have them standing by when you fire someone. You don’t know how this person will react, and they might take the news badly.
This person might get violent or start threatening you. You probably know this individual well enough to predict how they will react, but something unpredictable might still occur. These moments sometimes bring out the worst in people.
Security can lead them out of the building before they can cause any problems. Their presence will also prevent this person from stealing anything on the way out, as some ex-employees might attempt.
Take Away Their Access Tools
When you fire someone, you’ll want to get back any access tools you gave them. For instance, if you all work together in an office, they might have an employee badge or swipe card to get into the building or different areas within it. They might also have a bathroom key or other company property.
Get all of that back when you fire the person. You can ask for it at that time, and they should have no issues giving it to you. If they aren’t willing to give you back their identification and any other company property, you can call the police and have them retrieve it. Once you fire a person, the company property you gave them reverts to you, and the ex-employee cannot keep it.
Purge This Person From The System
Once you fire someone, you’ll want to purge them from your computer system. You can cancel their credentials and ensure they don’t have access to any of the online tools they once did.
If your company uses something like a software suite, you’ll want to make sure the former worker cannot utilize that resource anymore. That’s company property, and you don’t want anyone else besides your active workers using it for any reason.
Don’t Engage With This Person Verbally Or Physically
You should try to tell the person without any emotion that you’re terminating their employment. You can tell them why if they ask you, but try to stick to the reasons without adding your personal feelings or getting emotional. You need to act like a professional in this situation, especially if you know other employees can see or hear what’s happening.
If the person starts yelling at you or threatening you, that’s when you’ll want security to escort them out. If the individual still doesn’t want to leave, you can always call the police or threaten to do so.
Don’t ever touch them or otherwise engage with them physically. You can also have the person’s remaining wages ready to pay them when you fire them, so they have no reason to come back onto the premises. You can also consider sending the person’s last check through the mail if you think that’s appropriate.
