How do I terminate this problem employee?

M Warner

We have a problem employee who has been written up and coached for a number of issues, both performance and interpersonal. She has alienated many employees, most recently yesterday, with an altercation involving someone from another department. She complains often and has written notes of complaint and threats about a number of issues over the last year. She was hired as a receptionist, but was so abrasive to our customers, when she requested to be transferred to a warehouse production position (where she felt the reduced stress would improve her disposition) we granted it. Her performance there has become a problem as well, (she was found dozing off at her station recently) as well as her team relationships. This is documented by her supervisor. She is a protected class - a female, over 40 and of color.

Concurrently, we are downsizing our staff. We have gone from 64 to 58 people in the last few months, entirely by attrition. I have been given the duty to downsize even more to control payroll and other expenses. Various departments throughout the company have reduced their staff. Every department except for the Production department, which is where this woman works.

She is very disruptive, has been written up and talked to a number of times and is incompetent in her job, yet because she is protected and very contentious in her personality, I am reluctant to fire her for cause. Can I more easily lay her off? She will be a "lay-off" of one, but is part of our overall downsizing actions.

One has to be so careful here in California! Help!

Don D

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-14-02 AT 04:25PM (CST)[/font][p]Running the risk of California laws hitting me like a freight train, here's my thought. With a well written RIF policy in place, the procedure should allow you to reduce by location, department, job, or simply throughout the company by tenure. Hopefully your plan also has a clause that allows you to reduce on the broadest basis PLUS states that employees with documented performance/discipline issues may be RIFfed ahead of others with less time in the same department. I.E: RIF her with her performance and discipline incidents being the determinant. The danger, though, comes when you have no written policy that you can point to. Just choosing to use this criteria THIS TIME is most unwise, especially when she points to the fact that you just dreamed up this RIF criteria and did not use it last month in xyz department where Mary Jones also had discipline issues and was not RIFfed. If your RIF policy is not strong enough to support RIFfing her, perhaps she's ripe for termination anyway.

Gillian

[font size="1" color="#FF0000"]LAST EDITED ON 11-14-02 AT 06:06PM (CST)[/font][p]Well, I am in California and there are first a couple of comments. The fact that someone is in a protected class does not mean that work requirements do not have to be adhered to, whether California or elsewhere. The problem arises when someone allows a person to behave like this person is behaving because they are afraid to address the issues. She same thing goes for people who are contentious. That contentiousness has work related outcomes, and any organization should deal with them when they occur. The bottom line is not that California regulations make it hard to terminate or deal with employees, but they certainly can make it hard to justify termination when bad behavior that has been condoned all of a sudden is the reason for termination. In addition, it is not so much the regulations, but expectations by enforcement agencies and outcomes in court that create the need to be good managers. I don't know how good your documentaion is about the performance problems, but that is critical. If you have good documentation and a reasonable person could understand that this person was laid off because their performance was not good and she is the least productive, or with the most performance problems then maybe. If there are others, not in protected classes, who are sometimes contentious or have poor work performance in other areas but no one says anything, you may have a problem. Perhaps the best thing that you can do is to summarize your concerns about her work performance in a final letter, state what your performance expectations are and if there are any further instances that termination will result. Generally, this approach would be much better than using the layoff as an excuse. It all boils down to how good your documentation really is.

Crout

Actually, this is good advice even outside of California! Imagine!

Don D

Now Crout! You know that if it weren't for the weight of the Left-Coast, the rest of us would spring swiftly upward, being slung toward the Moon.

Gillian

It's called balance. Balance is good.

Rockie

Being in a protected class, does not give ANYONE free rein to be obnoxious and disruptive in the workplace. It sounds to me like you have good documentation to terminate this problem. I would say do not tie it to a layoff, tie it to performance. The sooner you do this,the better.

Moria

Wow, I just skimmed to the bottom to read the latest comment
on this issue, and I thought Rockie was talking about Don D.
I do agree with Rockie, terminate her now, of course with good
documentation.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Have you considered offering a fairly generous severance package that releases your organization from all possible claims?

It might not taste nice to reward this contentious employee but it might make good sense in the long run.

Consider the amount of time (money), energy (money), and morale (money) she is costing you. Also, currently you run the risk of employees getting the idea that management is unable to effectively deal with a disruptive employee.

Paul

M Warner

Thank you all for your input and helpful strategizing. One of my biggest concerns was well identified - that of appearing to tolerate this kind of insubordination and violation of company policy. You have strenghtened my confidence. I knew that was help out there ---- many thanks.

Don D

So, what have you decided to do, and why?