What is the best way to fire an employee?

Question:

Firing someone is never easy. How can I avoid making it harder than it needs to be?

Answer:

I don’t think firing or terminating an employee should ever be a surprise. In many situations, there have been two things: A policy or handbook that spells out behavior and actions and a step-by-step disciplinary process that is used before you fire someone. If somebody is violating those work rules or their performance is not up to speed, you obviously need to have conversations with them, and that builds over time.

With each conversation, ask “How can I help you? How could you have done that differently?” And document it. That way, you’re coaching them along, but ultimately, if they didn’t do what they were supposed to do, and there were recurrences of the behavior, it leads to termination.

When firing someone, the manager has to show respect for the individual—you have to treat them with dignity, even if the person screws up. I’ve seen some managers who are so irritated that they go at it from a not very calm perspective. Treat them as a human being that has made contributions to the organization. You have to remember what good they’ve done, but they’re just not meeting another expectation that you’ve set.

What I suggest is to think it through. Rehearse the conversation, and practice being crisp, clear and to the point. Also, don’t do it in a public setting. Do it in a way that the employee can exit.

-Jim Korner
Assistant VP, Professional and Community Education
Penn State University Outreach and Online Education