What should a manager do when an employee is terminated?
Managers should let employees give their side of the story, without comment, and then firmly and politely say the discussion is over. The decision’s been made, and it’s final. They don’t prepare well enough. Safe to say, the terminated employee will remember whatever the manager says in the worst possible light.
Can a supervisor delay the termination of a bad employee?
Bad employees not only don’t only do their own jobs well, they drag down everybody else. If the function is critical to the company’s operation, the supervisor may have to delay the termination until a new employee can fill the key slot.
What’s the dreaded talk about termination at work?
The dreaded termination talk: Helping managers get it right 1 ‘Maybe they’ll improve’. 2 ‘Better to have a warm body in the job than nobody at all’. 3 ‘Other workers will think we’re cruel – they’ll hate me’. 4 ‘Maybe they’d do better in another position’. 5 ‘This could get ugly – they might cry, or even get violent’. …
Is the termination process cut and dried for employees?
No termination process – or any interaction with employees, for that matter – is totally cut and dried. So the employee will probably have at least one issue he or she can bring up in an attempt to counter the company’s decision. Managers have to be prepared to cut off those unproductive debates. They try to soften the blow.
What should a manager do if an employee is fired?
Example: If an employee’s being fired for substandard performance, the manager shouldn’t offer compliments on any aspect of his performance. Doing so might make the manager feel better, but it will only give the employee cause to question and challenge the company’s termination decision.
Can a terminated employee remember what the manager said?
Safe to say, the terminated employee will remember whatever the manager says in the worst possible light. So shooting from the hip is highly dangerous. The manager should rehearse exactly what he or she intends to say – perhaps even committing the opening statement to paper.
Why do managers avoid making the termination decision?
Before a confrontation can happen, HR’s often faced with getting managers past their normal aversion to making the final termination decision. A few of the more common rationalizations supervisors use to avoid dropping the axe – and why these avoidance tactics don’t make sense:
What happens in a termination conversation with a manager?
So the documentation’s in place, HR’s been consulted and will sit in on the conversation as a witness, and the employee’s been called to the manager’s office. Here are the most common mistakes managers make in these high-pressure conversations. And any one of them has the potential to cause a nasty legal problem. They lose their cool.