Dismissing an Employee

A Closer Look at

Dismissals

Sooner or later, every conscientious person who owns or manages a business for an appreciable time will need to do the same hard thing: fire someone.

—Barbara Kate Repa

When do dismissals occur?

Dismissals occur whenever a manager decides that an employee’s performance or behavior is hopelessly problematic. In some cases, an employee outright violates a law or a company policy (for example, by stealing or by sexually harassing another employee) and is dismissed immediately. In other cases, the manager has worked with the employee over many months to try to address performance or behavioral problems, but these efforts ...