Chapter 19. Terminating Employees When All Else Fails

In This Chapter

  • Understanding the various kinds of termination

  • Carrying out layoffs

  • Taking necessary precautions before terminating an employee

  • Firing employees: A step-by-step approach

  • Determining the proper time to terminate employees

Being a manager is a tough job. If people tell you that the job is easy, they're joking, lying, or totally confused. Challenging? Yes. Constantly changing? Yes. Satisfying? Yes — for the most part. Easy? No. And of all the tough jobs managers have to do routinely, firing employees has to be the absolute toughest. Take our word for it: No matter how many times you fire someone, terminating an employee is never a pleasant thing to do.

The mechanics of terminating employees — setting goals, gathering data, assessing performance, carrying out discipline, and completing the paperwork — aren't so tough. The tough part is all the emotional baggage that goes along with firing someone — especially someone you've worked with for some time and have shared good and bad times with. However, no matter how difficult, taking an employee aside and telling him that his services are no longer needed is sometimes your only option.

No matter how much you try to help someone succeed in your organization, sometimes that person's employment at your firm just isn't meant to be. This forces the questions, what's the best way for you to deal with the problem, and what's the best way for you to deal with the person?

You see, terminations ...

Get Managing For Dummies®, 3rd Edition now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.