Top 10 Termination Mistakes: Common Supervisory Slips-Ups That Can Get Your Company Sued – Download Your FREE Report Now
Find out what you can do NOW to train your managers and supervisors to avoid termination mistakes that too often lead to lawsuits.
This FREE PDF report covers the most dangerous termination trouble spots and offers practical guidance to avoid them.
Extra Bonus: Request your copy now and you’ll also get free access to the Compliance & Management Rapid Learning Center. This online training library offers a collection of e-learning tools on termination, employment law compliance, leadership and more. Simply complete and submit the contact information to your right and we’ll email you a user name and password that will give you instant access.
Terminating employees is dangerous. Fired workers who feel angry and mistreated often contact the EEOC or a lawyer – which means you’re in for a long, costly, distracting legal battle.
But NOT terminating disruptive, underperforming employees is dangerous, too. You can’t survive in the competitive marketplace with bad-apple employees who sap morale and decrease productivity.
So what do you do? You manage risk. You make sure that every manager and supervisor in your company follows clear-cut procedures when dealing with problem employees. Will adhering to best-practices guarantee that no fired employee will get angry and sue? Of course not. But it will reduce the likelihood you’ll get sued, and dramatically increase your chances of prevailing should you ever end up in court.
Train your managers to avoid the most common termination mistakes
The Top 10 Termination Mistakes report covers the areas managers and supervisors need to watch for. The list includes:
Termination Mistake #1: Letting discrimination creep in
Supervisors today need to be aware that almost any termination can run aground on the reef of discrimination. This may mean delaying or deferring action while building an airtight case for termination, or it may sometimes mean finding a compromise with a recalcitrant employee. The report provides an overview of the key issues and case studies to help managers understand where they’re at risk.
Termination Mistake #2: Looking like you’re trying to retaliate
Anybody who has filed a complaint – whether inside the company or to an outside agency like the EEOC or a state human relations commission – is potential dynamite. Sure, you can terminate such people if you have a good performance-related reason. But be sure, even surer than usual, that you have spotless documentation in these cases. And do yourself a favor by waiting a decent interval after the person’s complaint, if possible. The courts are much less likely to come down on you if you wait three months than if you act in the heat of the moment. Find out more about retaliation risks in the Top 10 Termination Mistakes report.
Termination Mistake #3: Not investigating the offense thoroughly
Before taking an action as serious as termination, you need to make sure that all the facts about the alleged offense come to light. Don’t be swayed by one individual’s version, no matter how appealing it sounds, and no matter how much you’ve trusted that person in the past. As you investigate, assure everybody you talk to that they’re speaking confidentially, and respect their confidence. Don’t tell the person being terminated who you talked to. The Top 10 Termination Mistakes report will give you more on this critical issue and provide several real-world cases that will bring this lesson to life.
Termination Mistake #4: Misusing progressive discipline
When you use progressive discipline, you’re proving to yourself, the employee, and anybody who looks at the situation afterward – like a lawyer or a judge – that company policy was fairly applied. You’ll discover the why this issue is one of the most common termination mistakes.
Termination Mistake #5: Failing to keep proper documentation to justify the firing
People are creatures of habit. If somebody you supervise has a penchant for insubordination, for example, you can be pretty sure his first outbreak won’t be his last. So keep good records and build a case for firing the employee, one that any person with common sense (e.g., a juror) would find compelling. The Top 10 Termination Mistakes report gives you the details on what you should document, how to document and how long you should keep your records.
Termination Mistake #6: Lacking consistency when firing people
You don’t have to treat employees exactly alike when it comes to termination. Employees have different jobs, work in different conditions, and make a variety of mistakes, some of them serious, others not so bad. But when you’re deciding whether to fire somebody, take the time to look around the department and identify people who have committed similar offenses in the past. If they’re still around, maybe you need to think twice about firing the person. Your Top 10 Termination Mistakes reports will show you how other managers slipped up on consistency and landed their companies in court.
Termination Mistake #7: Letting personality conflicts influence your decision to fire an employee
It’s one thing to come down on a worker for performance-related issues. It’s another to let your professional judgment get clouded by the annoying personality quirks of people you supervise. Only trouble lies down that road. Your free termination mistakes report will flag the pothole that managers too often hit.
Termination Mistake #8: Handling employee firings alone, without witnesses to back you up
No matter how hectic things get, don’t carry out a termination under less than optimal conditions. This means a quiet conference room or office and another manager at your side just in case. Note: If you think the employee may get violent or distraught, it’s a good idea to have someone from Security with you, or a particularly imposing or reassuring person, whichever is more appropriate. You’ll learn more detail on how to handle terminations the right way in your free report.
Termination Mistake #9: Neglecting the employee’s post-termination rights
Keep all the material a terminated employee might need on hand, or know exactly where he or she must go to get it. The Top 10 Termination Mistakes report gives you step-by-step guidance to be sure you don’t fall into this dangerous trap.
Termination Mistake #10: Smearing the employee’s reputation after you’ve fired them
Terminated employees may be gone, but they haven’t ceased to exist. If you refer to them in a cavalier or hostile way, you could be in for trouble. The Termination report will tell you why it’s so important to watch what you say after a terminated employee is out the door.
Claim your FREE copy of the Top 10 Termination Mistakes: Common Supervisory Slips-Ups That Can Get Your Company Sued report. Remember, if you act now, you’ll also get free access to the Compliance & Management Rapid Learning Center where you’ll find a library of training materials for your managers and supervisors.
Sincerely,
Stephen Meyer
CEO/Director of Learning and Development, The Rapid Learning Institute
