A human resources consultant describes the situation as “the worst.”
A corporate attorney calls it “devastating.”
A human resources manager compares it to a “death-like” experience.
All of these people are talking about the same nightmare: having to terminate someone's employment. No matter what it's called—firing, dismissing, booting, discharging, canning—it all adds up to the same painful thing: An employee no longer has a job. And someone has to deliver the bad news.
“There's a horrible amount of guilt in firing an employee,” says Mark Andreasen, a business instructor at Northwest College in Powell, Wyoming, and former small business owner.
“I'd almost rather be fired than fire somebody,” says Brian L. Boyle, chief legal officer for Jus International, in Boise, Idaho. “Losing a job is a devastation that people don't always come back from, emotionally or financially.”
“It is life-changing,” says Dale Getz, human resources manager for the Exxon-Mobil refinery in Billings, Montana. “I tell managers they need to view it as a death-type experience for the employee. That's probably too severe a description, but the employee is being severed from an important part of life.”
A perfect, painless way of terminating an employee probably doesn't exist. But human resource professionals agree a few steps are essential to minimizing the pain—for both employee and manager—while also reducing the odds that the termination will be revisited in a courtroom. The termination process may be perceived as cold, but there are solid reasons for organizations to follow a strict protocol even when cutting loose a valuable and trusted employee.
Forecast: More Rough Weather Ahead
As the international economy continues to shake, sputter, and, in some cases, stall, more terminations are inevitable. An estimated 2.6 million employees lost their jobs last year, and the figure is expected to be similar, if not higher, in 2009. Unemployment topped the 8 percent mark in March, the highest such rate since 1983, according to figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Supervisors are now often in a role they hoped they'd never play: unsheathing the corporate ax.
Terminating good employees for economic reasons is especially troubling. “Those are the worst,” says Mara E. Hartley, a human relations consultant with Employer Solution Group in Loveland, Colorado. “I've been there. And the people being terminated ended up consoling me.”
Experts recommend several steps that will help limit the anguish for all parties. First, document issues ahead of time if the termination is performance-related. Next, carefully prepare a plan for the termination interview, and stick to it. Be understanding in the termination interview, but provide only essential information to the employee. Get ready for an array of reactions, from passive acceptance to pleas for a second chance to outright hostility. Be consistent in what you say, and ensure that you've held performance to the same standard for all employees. And when the employee has been dismissed, provide a brief explanation to other employees.
It's not simple to pull all of that together. It takes time and thoughtful consideration. Terminating an employee takes at least as much effort as hiring a person. It is especially draining to send a good worker out the door because of economic conditions. “In those cases, you dread having to do it,” Getz says. “You know it will be difficult for him or her from a personal and family situation.”
Managers probably sleep slightly better when the termination stems from difficult times, rather than difficult employees. Both are miserable experiences, but when the economy is the boogeyman, news of a termination is generally a little easier for an employer to deliver and employees to accept because it leaves them with some dignity.
Keeping Employees At-Will
How difficult is it to terminate an employee? On paper, it's not tough.
“From a legal standpoint, it's not difficult to fire someone,” Boyle says, because of “at-will” laws in effect in almost every state. “At-will employment” means that workers keep their jobs at the will of the employer. “Essentially, in most states, employees are on an at-will appointment. You can fire anyone at any time, for any reason, or for no reason.”
At-will employment doesn't provide a complete shield to employers, however. “Just because you can fire someone doesn't mean he or she won't file a lawsuit against you,” Boyle says. “A wrongful discharge is very difficult to win. But it doesn't mean you won't spend thousands of dollars to fight it. Sometimes winning is losing.”
Beware of employee contracts that contain language limiting an employer's ability to terminate an employee. If it's company policy to have a written contract, “make sure you have something that lets the employee know he or she is at-will,” Boyle says. Employers often run into problems in at-will states when “a handbook gives people rights they never had,” he adds.
Paper Trails before Happy Trails
Some companies, in fact, may be reluctant to fire underachieving employees, fearing legal repercussions. Well-publicized cases have made employers skittish and employees open-eyed about what can happen in a termination-gone-wrong.
“If you've done your due diligence, if you feel as though you followed the steps in terms of documenting, investigating, and following policies, the risk is much less,” Hartley says.
Documentation is an essential part of due diligence if termination is based on unacceptable performance.
“Make sure you document the performance issue. Then make sure the employee has been made aware of the issue and that the employee has been warned that termination could be an outcome,” Hartley says.
Documentation ideally begins with the employee's performance appraisal. That's the appropriate time to inform the employee of performance issues, expected improvements, and consequences of continued poor performance. If an organization wants to terminate an employee who has an acceptable performance appraisal, “you've got an issue,” Hartley warns.
“Paper trails help immensely,” Andreasen says. “If you don't have that paper trail and termination is a possibility, start one.”
Terminating without solid documentation is a spin of the wheel for employers.
“Attorneys are going to be very interested in the thoroughness of the documentation,” Getz says. It's difficult to pinpoint how many terminations end up in court, the experts say, although it's probably less than most managers would guess.
“Relatively few end up in court, but other legal or contractual mechanisms are often used,” Getz says. They include arbitration, third-party investigations, or settlements. The trend toward litigation likely will rise in today's economy, though, as savings accounts dry up and frustration mounts. That makes it all the more important to carefully plan and manage any termination activity.
Ripping Off the Band-Aid
When the time comes to talk with the employee, every step should be mapped out. Termination interviews are not the time to make decisions or statements on a whim. Employers need to develop a playbook and stick to it.
Planning includes picking a good time for the termination conference; a suitable location to preserve the employee's privacy; and having all the paperwork prepared, including information on the severance package, health insurance, and other benefits, as well as documentation if the termination is performance-based.
The HR experts say the conference should be to the point, with only essential information provided to the employee.
“Ripping off the Band-Aid slowly is going to extend the conversation, and from a legal perspective, you don't want to talk too much,” Boyle says. “Every reason you give is a potential contention point in a lawsuit.”
“Keep it short,” Andreasen says. “If you continue to talk and talk, you're probably trying to appease your own feeling about dropping the ax.”
While acknowledging the need for compassion, Getz says, “cut the dog's tail off all at once, not an inch at a time.” Often, a quick exit is also the most compassionate exit.
“Give the employee a factual reason for the termination,” Hartley says. “Attempts to soften the blow can cause even more confusion and lead to legal action because the employee could sense that something illegal or discriminatory is being covered up.”
Except in unusual instances, such as when an employee may become violent, employees deserve to hear the news face-to-face.
Getz says that at least two management representatives should be present at the termination conference. If a union is involved, a representative should accompany the employee. If there is a threat of violence, security personnel need to be nearby.
Never use email to terminate an employee. Aside from lacking compassion and smacking of cowardice, there are legal benefits to doing the task person-to-person.
“Emails are forever,” Boyle says. Every reason an employer lists in a termination email could resurface should the termination spawn a lawsuit.
Going Gently—or Not
The reaction of the employee can range from docile acceptance to violence. Getz recalls an incident early in his career when a terminated employee left the office shouting and tossing equipment around, leaving other staff members wide-eyed and looking for the closest exit.
“It didn't go well,” Getz says wryly. “That was one where I learned a lot about terminations.”
Hartley says, in most cases employees have clued in about why they've been summoned to meet with a manager. “Most people know why they are there. They won't be surprised.” Still, expect pleas and bargaining. “Let me stay just one more week, and I'll show you what I can do. I'll turn it around. You aren't being fair,” are common refrains, but second-guessing the decision isn't a good idea.
“You just have to stick to your guns and say, ‘I'm sorry you feel that way, but that's our decision,'” Hartley says.
Smaller firms without in-house counsel or an HR staff may need to look for outside expertise to help with terminations. “If you don't feel 100 percent good about it, that's when you should consult an attorney or HR professional,” she says.
The Same Thing, Over and Over
For twelve years, John Thompson worked as a computer systems administrator for a large high-tech company in Boise, Idaho. When economic times turned tough and the company began to bleed red, the pink slips started to flow, even for an employee as experienced as Thompson.
“Everyone got called in, but you didn't know if you were retained before the meeting,” he says. “If you came out with a packet in your hand, everyone knew you weren't.”
Thompson's meeting was swift, lasting less than ten minutes. Thompson describes it as a “cold” encounter—one that left him without a job.
“For legal reasons, they had it scripted out, so they didn't say the wrong things to employees,” Thompson recalls. “I went into a room with a manager and a supervisor. My supervisor didn't say a word, and the manager just read from the script. It was the strangest thing.”
When more than one employee is going to be terminated, consistency is vital, although highly impersonal. The termination conference should be conducted in the same manner and all employees provided the same information.
“It's important to be consistent, rather than deciding to be hard core or compassionate,” Andreasen says. “If you're a compassionate supervisor, then you should act that way when you talk with the employee. If you've always been businesslike, then that's the way you should be in the termination interview.”
Consistency is important in another way too. Organizations run into a mountain of trouble by being selective in their terminations. Employee behavior must be held to a consistent standard throughout the organization. At times supervisors will terminate one employee but allow others to display similar behaviors with no consequences, Hartley says. Such inconsistencies may come back to haunt an employer should a termination end up before a jury.
The Truth, Minus Dirty Laundry
Here's the scenario: Bill comes to work. Bill is called into the office. Bill comes out, looks upset, packs up his belongings, and scuttles out of the building without saying a word. The office grapevine springs to life.
How much of Bill's story should an employer disclose? Should anything be said?
Those questions should be addressed within strict limits, Hartley says.
“Make sure you maintain confidentiality about the termination. Otherwise, you risk defamation or privacy invasion,” she says. “It's a fine line because the remaining employees know that someone is obviously gone, but supervisors tend to give more information than is necessary.”
Andreasen agrees and says that tactfully acknowledging the termination of an employee can lay to rest the concerns of others left behind.
“You don't want to spread the dirty laundry,” he says. “But if there is no danger of other employees losing their job, then you don't want them to panic. You can be straightforward. You can say, ‘Bill was terminated for . . .' without going into the specifics. You can assure them their jobs will not be affected.”
A Failure of Two
Too often, terminations stem from hiring an employee for something he or she wasn't qualified to do. Maybe the expectations were too high or not communicated well. Perhaps there wasn't enough training or definition to the job. And there is the possibility that a manager hired someone to make up for his or her own weaknesses.
“If you can't succeed as the owner of the business, it will be difficult to find an employee who can. People who operate like that leave a lot of dead people in their wake,” Boyle says.
Rather than continue the hire-then-fire pattern, he has a suggestion: take a look in the mirror.
“If you find that you are firing a lot of people, at some point, you have to look in the mirror and say, ‘Maybe it's me. I'm either the unluckiest person in the world, or maybe not all of these people were incompetent.”
Occasionally, employers will need to cut loose employees who have a sizeable dose of overconfidence about their contributions to the company. Their performance may be below par, but their egos take up the slack.
“Many times you get this look like, ‘I can't believe you're doing this to me!'” Hartley says. “Their perspective is not exactly aligned with reality.”
Andreasen says that keeping open the lines of communication is a must so that when performance dips, the employee knows it immediately and can attempt remedial action.
“You can't assume the employee knows what you're thinking,” he says.
In the End, a Beginning
John Thompson, the systems administrator, found a new job several months after being laid off by his previous employer. He, in fact, received two job offers on the same day.
Although Thompson acknowledges it's hard to feel safe after being terminated, the new job provides him with the security that he sorely missed. When the new job was offered, “it felt like an elephant had been lifted off my shoulders. Everything I worried about before went away.”
And even though the experience of being laid off was traumatic, he acknowledges his former employer was following a strict plan for a reason.
“It doesn't make it any more pleasant, but I knew, right then, it was all for legal purposes,” he says.
The ordeal is certainly not fun for either party. But cutting loose a good employee was never meant to be.
From Nightmare to Dream Come True
His advice to those who have lost their jobs is simple. “It's so important to keep that long-term vision. Looking back, I realized losing my job was the best thing that could have happened to me.”
Peek at any of those lists of major stresses in life, and losing a job is always in the top ten, a few notches below a death in the family, divorce, or heading to jail.
“It's a very bitter pill for an employee to swallow,” says Dale Getz, human resources manager with Exxon-Mobil, who has more than thirty years of experience in the field.
Yet in the case of Mark Andreasen, losing his job might have been the best next step along his career path.
Andreasen worked for a high-tech company in Utah, first in international sales, then in marketing. When he joined the firm, it was small and privately owned, but after a few years, it was sold to a large, publicly held company. The corporate structure changed almost overnight.
And rumors percolated, followed by a meeting with his supervisor who told the employees layoffs were a possibility and she would understand if they decided to look elsewhere for a job.
The layoffs proved more than rumor. A couple of months after the first meeting with his supervisor, Andreasen nestled in among the unemployed.
“For me, it was a roller coaster,” he says. “We were in a mild recession; jobs were tight. There were days when I was depressed and struggled. But I was also excited to try something else.”
Andreasen decided to set up his own business washing windows and putting up Christmas lights. If it seemed a step down the career ladder for a former corporate manager with a master's degree in business, Andreasen didn't notice and didn't care. His business boomed. Within months he hired his first employee, and others soon followed. He had more than enough work to keep the small business chugging along.
But what he really wanted to do long term was teach at the junior college level. When a position opened on the business faculty at Northwest College, in Powell, Wyoming, Andreasen knew he was qualified and prepared. He got the job five years ago and is thrilled to be at the school, located in a high-plains valley east of Yellowstone National Park.
From the nightmare of a layoff came an unforeseen result. “I landed my dream job,” Andreasen says.
Getz says that Andreasen's journey is not atypical.
“Most employees who have lost their jobs, I've noticed, come out better on the other side,” he says. “They come out happier. They find a better job. They find an organization that better meets their career objectives and their skills.”
Andreasen agrees. He's spoken to many people who have gone through the turmoil of being terminated, “but in the end, every one of them told me it worked out better.”
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Article written by Donald Smurthwaite
Illustrations by Greg Clarke
About the Author:
A writer from Meridian, Idaho, and the father of four children, Donald Smurthwaite is the author of seven books and dozens of magazine stories. He earned his ba in communications from Brigham Young University in 1977.
