elderly employee won't retire

Jocelyn

We have a 79 year old female who's been with us 35 years in the Laundry dept. Her last two evals indicate a decline in work performance. This year she didn't warrant a merit increase and was put on a performance improvement plan. She's not improving. She' been having health problems but we don't always know about this. What are the ramifications for terminating her based on poor performance? We've considered offering her a job we'd create just for he. It's the only task she can still perform, folding the laundry. It would mean a reduction in pay and hours.

js

I think the law only protects on age discrimination until age 70. Besides, documented poor performance and consistant application of the policies will *usually* protect you. I wonder though, if someone who has put in 35 years of quality work at your company might not deserve an easier load without a drastic cut in pay. Sometimes the dividends of showing employees they are valued are not without their own huge indirect gains when it comes to turnover and other issues.

System

Actually, the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act protects employees until they're 1,000 years old. The only exception is that you can have mandatory retirement for highly paid executives. Yes, you can fire or demote any employee for poor performance. But js is right that you try to treat this employee with respect.

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James Sokolowski
Senior Editor
M. Lee Smith Publishers

Rockie

You can always "terminate" someone for poor performance, especially if it's documented properly, regardless of age. But...from a compassion and an employee relations point of view, I agree that maybe you should try to find her something else to do without drastically cutting her pay. She probably needs to work,either from a financial standpoint or just to keep herself occupied. To terminate someone like this would send a definite message to the other employees - "they don't care about us..if they would do something like this to poor Mrs. ------then, what would they do to us?"

We have several elderly people who work for us and we have made some accommodations for them in the hours of work, etc. They prove to be very loyal and hardworking and other employees and our patients just love them.

Sometimes we have to balance our business side with our human side and it's not always easy.

Good luck.

Gar

It seems to me that if she is experiencing performance problems, you've placed her on an improvement plan and she doesn't pass muster, you have to take some sort of action (demotion or employment termination). I can fully appreciate that she may need to work and has health problems. But, by creating a special job for her, you're sending the wrong signal to your other employees - particularly those employees of color if she is white? Some where down the line, someone may want similar treatment and you may not be able to do it. This is a simple business decision. She isn't performing and you need someone in that job who will.

Gillian

Assuming that you have 20 employees you are subject to the Age Discimination regulations that protect employees over the age of 40. There is no age limit except for one that can require retirement of certain executives at age 65.

I agree with js and Rockie. The decision you make must include consideration of the length of service of this employee, the morale impact on other employees, and the risk of litigation, not to mention how termination of this employee might look to a jury.

From my point of view the most critical one is that of morale. If your business or department where this employee works is small and with a family type of culture the impact on other employees would be particularly devastating. You are on the right track in thinking of alternatives. That is good business and the right thing to do.