Termination of single parent

Dan McCarthy

We have a woman who has been with us for two weeks. She has had to go to court to deal with relationship issues, has had to leave early for child care issues, and the bottom line is that she is not performing up to the standards we need her to achieve. I am concerned that we may be seen as discriminating against a single parent, but we have attempted to make "reasonable accomodations" to meet her situation, and things are just not working. As an "at will" employer, and considering she is in her "probationary" period, can we terminate her without recourse to progressive disciplinary action?

Susan Fentin MA

Dan, we recommend that you evaluate all your terminations by asking whether your conduct is fair, consistent, done for business based reasons, and supported by documentation. In this case, it sounds like you have been fair, although I wonder if you have told her that she is on the edge of being terminated for attendance reasons, or is it performance, or a combination of the two? Not to say that you have to go through progressive discipline, because as an at-will employer you can terminate the relationship for any or no reason, without notice, so long as you don't do it for an impermissible reason. But as far as fairness is concerned, if you have been trying to accommodate her absences, she may not realize that it's problematic. If on the other hand, you have already spoken to her about this issue, and you have terminated other employees under similar circumstances, you clearly have a business based reason for taking the action. You are not discriminating against a single parent, you are simply enforcing the attendance and performance standards that you expect from all workers, whether or not they are parents or single parents. If you'd like to discuss this further, I can be reached at (413) 737-4753, or by email at [email]sfentin@skoler-abbott.com[/email]