Friendly "Fire"

ROCHELLE EISENBERG: You can fire somebody because you do not like the way they part their hair or you do not like the way they smile.

MARY KEATING: Business judgment would seem to say only fire the employee for a good reason, but unless it is an illegal reason and there are only few of those, the employment relationship can be terminated at any point.

ROCHELLE EISENBERG: That is correct, however, you better be able to justify why you fired somebody in the event of charge of discrimination is filed against you.

MARY KEATING: Being fired can be a very traumatic event.

ROCHELLE EISENBERG: I would not be that aggressive with the departing employee and I would be more respectful of the departing employee.

MARY KEATING: Keep things objective and focussed on job performance.

ROCHELLE EISENBERG: We met on March 1, 2008, March 15, 2008, April 1, 2008, and April 15, 2008. We talked about your poor job performance. It was not working, you are not a match, and I am afraid that we are going to have to terminate your employment and at that point, do not let the employee have the access to their computer, that is the big issue now. Files can be erased or an attempt to erase them, we know that files really cannot be erased, but people can go in and sabotage your system.

MARY KEATING: Allow the person to get his or her personal items, but not let them stay to work the rest of the day.