Avoid These Classic Firing Mistakes

Firings may cause employees to cry, become defensive, or even turn violent.  Some distort what happened in your firing meeting to justify a lawsuit against you.  

To protect yourself legally, have someone with you during the firing so no one can question what you say.  Write a memo to file summarizing what happened and have your witness sign it.

Here are some additional ways to defuse fired employees and protect yourself:

• Keep a cool head. Don’t debate what they say, or berate them as a response to their questions as to why.

• Avoid surprising the employee. Give them regular feedback on performance with ways to improve.  Make sure you don’t give them good reviews and then terminate them. 

• Make sure you don’t make discriminatory statements like: “This job is better for a man due to the heavy lifting involved.”  

• Don’t be kind or say you are sorry.  Don’t offer compliments or tell them you will give them a good recommendation. Doing so might make you feel better, but could turn up as evidence against you in a wrongful termination suit.  

• Don’t discuss your reason for the termination with other employees. You should just say: “Sue will no longer be working for us.” You don’t want to be in a situation where you need to defend yourself against a defamation-of-character suit.