{"id":381,"date":"2022-09-14T19:31:00","date_gmt":"2022-09-14T19:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/?p=381"},"modified":"2023-10-09T20:34:15","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T20:34:15","slug":"4-ways-to-make-terminations-less-stressful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pbspay.com\/news\/2022\/09\/14\/4-ways-to-make-terminations-less-stressful\/","title":{"rendered":"4 Ways to Make Terminations Less Stressful"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Nothing you can do will make terminations entirely stress free. But terminations are often far more challenging than they need to be. Good preparation and the right attitude will make a big difference. Here are four general practices we do recommend:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
1. Know Your Compliance Obligations Ahead of Time<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Look up applicable laws regarding termination procedures and paperwork, accrued paid leave, severance pay, COBRA, and final paychecks before conducting a termination meeting. If you\u2019re laying off a number of employees, you may have specific notice obligations under the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act (WARN) or a similar state law. You don\u2019t want to miss any steps or deadlines. If the employee works in a different state, refer to that state\u2019s laws.<\/p>\n\n\n
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You should also understand how antidiscrimination laws work in practice and take steps to reduce the likelihood that the terminated employee will file a discrimination claim. While at-will employment allows either the employer or the employee to terminate the employment relationship at any time, with or without notice and with or without cause, it does not permit you to terminate employment based on the employee belonging to a protected class (e.g., race, sex, religion, national origin).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There\u2019s even some risk when the termination is for cause. A terminated employee could claim your reasoning is just for show, and they were actually terminated for an illegal reason. That risk grows exponentially when you don\u2019t provide the employee with a sensible reason for the termination or when you\u2019ve been inconsistent in applying your discipline policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Consequently, the safest way to terminate employees is to communicate performance issues to them, give them a chance to improve, and have documentation that justifies the legitimate business reasons behind the termination. This documentation would include policy violations, instances of poor performance, and any disciplinary or corrective action taken. The documentation should indicate that the company communicated the issues to the employee. The more you can do to show you had a legitimate business reason and gave them an opportunity to improve, the harder it will be for an employee to fill in the blank with their own illegal reason for termination. The termination will be less risky, and you\u2019ll feel better about the decision because you treated the employee fairly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
2. Approach Terminations with a Positive Mindset<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Painful as they are, terminations can be a good thing. Yes, even for the terminated employee. Let\u2019s say you have an employee who\u2019s continually struggled to meet your performance expectations. Guidance and training haven\u2019t proven fruitful. No amount of coaching has or would enable them to do the job better. There\u2019s no other job in your organization they could do. So now you have a choice. You can keep them on, tolerating subpar performance and accepting its consequences for your organization, or you can let them go. In this case, letting them go is probably the better option for both parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Be prepared for strong emotions like sadness and anger to surface during the termination meeting so that you can respond with confidence. While there\u2019s a fine line between allowing space for initial processing and unnecessarily prolonging the meeting, you can acknowledge and validate the employee\u2019s feelings without changing the end result. Although escalations into violence are rare, review your company\u2019s procedures ahead of time for dealing with such situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
3. Don\u2019t Let Terminations Be a Surprise<\/h2>\n\n\n
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Have you ever gotten an email from a boss saying something cryptic like \u201cWe need to talk\u201d? You may immediately begin to worry. Are you in trouble? Are you getting fired? Until you have that talk, you can\u2019t breathe a sigh of relief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why would your mind go there? It might be because you\u2019re not clear on what could get you into trouble at work and you don\u2019t feel safe. Vague out-of-the-blue messages are seldom a good idea. They\u2019re a terrible practice when people believe that they could realistically lose their job for reasons unknown to them. That belief puts people on edge, inclining them to assume the worst when their manager reaches out without any context. Surprise terminations encourage everyone to adopt that belief and incentivize a culture of fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Terminations should never be a complete surprise. Yes, at-will employment allows you to terminate employment for any reason or no reason at all (as long as it\u2019s not an illegal reason), but please don\u2019t fire someone for any reason or no reason at all. Clear rules and consistent practices are your friends here. Inform employees what\u2019s expected of them and what could result in their dismissal\u2014the employee handbook is a good place to do this. Enforce your rules consistently, not willy-nilly. If you let employees get away with policy violations, but then suddenly switch to strict enforcement, you\u2019ll only create confusion and fear. You don\u2019t need to follow the same process for every kind of offense\u2014some behaviors may warrant immediate termination, for example. But don\u2019t bend the rules for some employees and not others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
4. Stay Organized<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Develop a checklist ahead of time of things that need to be covered. This list might include specific equipment and keys that need to be returned, passwords and access cards that will need to be disabled, coverage of the employee\u2019s workload until a replacement is hired, notification to coworkers, vendors, and customers, COBRA information, a current address for W-2s, and what you\u2019re going to say during the termination meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Checking off boxes may feel impersonal, but the day of a termination is at the very least challenging for all involved, and at the worst chaotic, especially if you\u2019re disorganized. Keeping the process smooth and orderly is both kind and professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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