termination

employ

wejust recently hired a new supervisor in one of our departments. He wants to make changes but is getting alot of resistance from the asssociates in that department. Can he terminate due to reorganization.

Crout

My assumption from your post is that the question should be: "Can he terminate the people who are resisting him and chalk it up to reorganization?" Is that correct? If so, you may be in for some problems. The reason that organizations utilize RIF's is to minimize the potential EEOC charge that the terminations were based on race, age or sex. Allowing your manager to just start lopping off heads based on personality clashes is bad business and certainly bad for morale

Theresa Gegen TX

New supervisors cause lots of lawsuits.

Each employee must be handled fairly and the supervisor needs to learn how to implement the changes and get employee buy in (that is part of his job). If the employees are resisting the changes, rather than lop of the employees, consider how the changes are being communicated. Is there a better way?

There may be some bad apples who have to go, but before terminating any of the employees, give them due process. If they don't conform to new standards, the employees should be written up. If an employee refuses to conform to the new standards, then the employee should be let go. BUT I am sure some of these are valuable employees who can be turned around. Some of them may also be long time employees who are over 40 and will see the new supervisor's actions as age discrminatory (especially if he or she makes comments like "the old guys won't adapt" or the "long timers are too set in their ways").

Also, any decision about a reorg or reduction in force should be carefully considered. I strongly suggest honesty. And if the honest reason for termination is that the employee refuses to comply with the new standards (that's more than just grumbling), that is the reason they should be given for the termination.

Good Luck.

Pork

Employ: I highly recommend you inform the new supervisor that he must build a specific plan to accomplish his mission and goals. Once he/she identifies the people resources required, and I don't mean the faces, then HR will become involved to assist the sorting of faces and slots with requirements and experiences. The left over becomes the resources of the company for transfer and consideration of other seniority issues, before we ever get to the "pink slip". It should not be the new supervisor's headache unless the terminations are encased in performance issues. How has a new supervisor become so talented in the determination of what the organization needs, so quickly, you may want to get a senior manager involved to see where this new supervisor has his/her head? Pork