When you’re a business owner, eventually you’ll have to decide whether it’s best for all to fire a problem employee. You have to protect your small business. Though a termination is a tough decision, keeping problem employees can drain a small business owner’s time, money, and energy. But how do you know when it’s time to let an employee go?
Here are five telltale signs that it’s time to fire someone, plus what to watch for when you’re serious about terminating an employee.
They’re Always Late
This employee is always late getting to work and often takes extended breaks and lunches. Though they always have an excuse, their behavior may cause negative ripples in your business because they’ll be seen as unreliable by your other staff members. Even worse, other employees may believe this individual gets preferential treatment if their habitual lateness isn’t disciplined, which may lead to even bigger headaches for you as the boss.
They’re Often Absent
Constantly requesting last-minute sick days, or quickly using up all allowable sick days and vacation days could signal an attendance issue. This, combined with other issues, could indicate a potential termination.
Or maybe you have a “vanishing” employee. You know the one whose productivity decreases while his or her unexplained absences increase. This employee could be looking for another job, and attending interviews while you are paying for their time. Again, their co-workers notice such behavior. How you deal with this individual matters to them.
They Don’t Fit Your Company Culture and Disrupt Other Staff
While an employee may have great credentials, exhibiting behavior that doesn’t align with your brand and company culture may indicate a future of continued workplace problems, plus issues with how they’re representing your business in public. And repeatedly poor behavior (inappropriate comments, loud or offensive language, etc.) that distracts others in the workplace and impacts everyone’s work performance could mean it’s time to cut them loose.
They Don’t Meet the Requirements of the Job Description
Problem employees don’t get the job done, even after completing training and probation periods . They produce shoddy work, hand in incomplete assignments, and are the cause of customer complaints. If you or other members of your team must constantly fix or finish their projects, it could be a sign that it’s time to fire them.
They’re Constantly Instigating and/or Spreading Gossip
Continually starting or spreading harmful gossip about your business, employees, customers or competition in person or on social media is another indication this employee isn’t someone you want on your team. Their dissatisfaction could become infectious, as spreading gossip may contribute to a negative workplace atmosphere and less-than-professional reputation for your business both online and off.
Before Terminating An Employee
Before firing anyone, consider talking to a legal expert. Government regulations on dismissing employees are complex, and the last thing you need is a time-consuming and expensive wrongful dismissal suit. If you suspect the employee you’re about to terminate could accuse your business of firing them because of age, sex, religion, disability, nationality, or race, get legal advice before proceeding.
Firing an employee could be the hardest thing you’ll do as a business owner. But remember, between lost sales, lost time, workplace morale issues and their salary, keeping a problem employee could do more damage to your business than terminating them.
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View Comments (46)
Always tough.
Adopt new philosophy: Hire Slow, Fire Fast.
After the initial interview (phone or in person), have a team of 3 interview. Preferably 3 different backgrounds or departments. Older women are frequently more sensitive to small indicators of failure (just saying). Any one person says no, it's no.
Not the complete answer, but a good start.
Some great advice I try to apply quarterly to our organization is this:
Ask yourself, “if a new owner took my place today, what are the first 3 things he or she would do?” If the honest answer includes employee separations, then it’s honestly past time to proceed with those separations. Of course, follow the state and fed labor laws to honor the employee and protect the organization.
Thank you for the comment!
Sally Longo it sounds like you have an independant contractor who is now claiming he was an employee. Please seek legal advice asap. You do not want to get into a legal mess because this independant contractor is angry... especially if your company is in California. Look up AB 5 that just went into effect this year.
Very informative. Thank you for sharing.
Thank you for reading!
What are the rules of letting a 1099 worker go? Doesn’t perform work satisfactorily anymore and verbalized is looking for a new job...wants more money for less work. Has left the boss in the lurch leaving work unfinished causing the boss to stay later to do the work. The boss told him not to come in if he wants to leave.
For past two weeks said he was looking for work.
Now he claims he was told he was fired.
Marius, I agree! I feel as a business owner you have to keep your mindset strong no matter what! Sometimes you have to just let go especially if your are becoming the parent instead of the boss!!
For the past several years I’ve adopted ” Slow to Hire and quick to fire” and now I talk less and sleep better. Ultimately I realized the marketplace wouldn’t care if I held onto someone or let them go, but that it would reward me if I made decisions that supported company values and standards. I want my time to be spent with the wheels that keep our bus rolling. I’ll pull over and check on the squeaky wheel once, twice and maybe even three times, but in the end who wants to go on a road trip that’s littered with pit stops?! Not me.
Great insights. Thank you for the comment, Marius!
We use the strike rules
Strike one - We have HR and the employee's supervisor sit down to bring to the employee's attention that there is a problem. After the meeting we have the supervisor write a letter outlining the discussion which goes into the employee's personnel file.
Strike two - We sit down with the employee (HR, employee's supervisor and employee's manager) and again bring to their attention what the issue is and that the employee needs to make an effort to correct what is being discussed. At this point we have prepared an internal memo outlining the issue and discussion and have the employee, employee's supervisor and employee's manager sign the document. The document states that if there is one more occurrence, the employee will be terminated.
It is important to remember that you should have an employee manual/policy and reference the specific violation that occurred from the manual. Each new employee signs a statement that they have received the policy, agree to abide by the policy and that they have read and understand the policy.
Strike three - You're out. We terminate the employee immediately and ask them to clear their personal items and are escorted off the premises.
We know it is a lot of paperwork and time, but it does save a lot of headaches should the employee file a grievance with any authority.
Thanks for the information George!
Srini,
Please see my comment to RJ - I think the same applies.
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Srini | July 10, 2019 at 8:20 pm
I have an employee who is always late and takes long breaks or on the phone. However, he brings a lot of business. The younger and newer employees learn the bad thing – but can’t match his ability to bring new business , How to handle him?
RJ -
That depends on how important "getting in on time" is. If that employee opening up your shop or restaurant and needs to be there to interface with customers and others and it's an essential part of their job then you have to put your foot down. But if that person is doing something that more task oriented and he/she is good and profitable for your company then I think you can be more flexible as long as the job is getting done. Just make sure that you're doing this consistently with all employees. A policy may need to be written.
Times have changed. 9-5 isn't the same as it was before. A new generation of people want more flexibility and independence and I say that as long as they get what they need to get done on time and with quality then...why not?
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RJ | July 10, 2019 at 12:18 pm
What if you have a good young employee who just cannot get in on time unless it’s a special request. However, other than tardiness, their quality of work and attitude is stand up! Would you suggest easing up and let maturity work it’s natural course to overcoming this deficit or moving back their starting hour to accommodate and remove the obstacle. If that doesn’t work then I’d agree it’s time to look and replace.