I wrote the Employee termination guidebook with these 3 audiences in mind. (These are just thumbnails of discipline warnings. For example, you may have to lay off the worker on Friday, but can't get a check cut until the next Tuesday. As a result, you might find there are loopholes in the notification - after you find yourself in court trying to defend it. Unfair or unpredictable treatment can affect the group spirit of the entire workplace. You lay off this employee on the spot. If you do the right thing for the company - separating the difficult worker - then you know the employee will find someway to sue you or stir up trouble. Give the employee his final paycheck and standard severance check and say thank you for his contributions to the company.

If you have an bad individual, you should address the problem and deal with it swiftly. It can spread quickly from one employee to dozens. If the written notice does not work, you need to fire the individual. In particular, you can't lay off an employee because she is pregnant. It provides a clear and direct message about the rationale for lay off. In the past 6 months, we've seen improvements and we have completed 3 projects early. Lastly, you can normally lay off immediately for gross misconduct, except as I mentioned for long-tenured workforce. In addition, the guidelines set forth by your exit interview policy will prevent you from say anything the worker can hold against you later.