Taking Precautions Before Firing an Employee of Your Small Business

Before you fire someone, you should make sure you have a legitimate reason that is based on fact and documented. If, for example you have proof that the employee showed up late or was absent from work on a regular basis, then you can use time sheets or time cards as documentation should you need to substantiate your decision to fire the employee on the grounds of tardiness or absenteeism. Illegal acts, including embezzlement, stealing or drug use are also valid grounds on which to terminate an employee. Again, you must make sure that you have proof of such activities before doing so.

An employee who is not adequately doing his or her job can also be fired. In some instances it might be appropriate to give the employee an opportunity to improve his or her work. It is also important that you provide clear (and documented) instructions as to exactly what task or tasks the employee is expected to do. Then, if he or she has failed to do so, you have documentation stating that the specific tasks or job requests were not carried out. Consistently poor job evaluations will also indicate that the employee is not performing at the level expected of him or her. However, since such evaluations can be subjective, you may wish to substantiate them further by attaching copies of a time sheet showing lateness or work done incorrectly before terminating an employee based on job evaluations.

Employees are also let go because the company can no longer afford to keep them on the payroll. In some cases such layoffs are widespread and may include entire departments while in other circumstances only a few employees may be dismissed. Be careful. Make sure you can fairly justify why each employee is no longer necessary to the company or why a department has been singled out to be eliminated. You do not want to show any pattern of discrimination, either willfully or unintentionally.

Discrimination laws protect against firing someone because of race, sex, religion, disability, ethnic background or because an individual is over 40 years of age. If, for example, all of the layoffs in the company were of individuals of the same ethnicity, they could file a discrimination suit against your business and potentially win.