Terminating New Employee- Reply URGENT!

System

This is a first with me since I have been in HR. We just hired a new employee two weeks ago. The employee has not comprehended even the easiest task of the job as of todate. The position is not a complicated job and some of the requirements were just for a high school graduate with basic knowledge of office machines and computer knowledge. To make a long story short, the employee is not working out, and we feel that the situation should just be nipped in the bud and that we need to proceed on with termination. The supervisor has talked with the employee and informed her that she is not catching on as well as expected and asked if there was a problem with his explanations are what. To top the matter off, at least three other employees, including myself, have detected the smell of alcohol on this employee. Of course, this was not what caused the supervisor to want to terminate, but should be taken into consideration. Are we jumping the gun by wanting to terminate this early into employment? I considered maybe that we should give it another week or so, but when the smell of alchol came into play, it caused more concern.

Parabeagle

I assume you are an at-will employer. If so, I suggest that you document every essential job function that this employee has not been able to satisfactorily perform, explain to the new employee that he/she does not appear to be a good fit for the position because (insert reasons here) and that it's in both his/her best interest and the interest of the company to terminate the employment relationship. Don't bring alcohol into it. Focus on the performance issues.

Hope this helps.

Gillian

Forget the alcohol unless you or the supervisors are experts in figuring out what is alcohol and what is not. You do, though, have performance reasons to make a change, and the risk of a problem from someone with two weeks of service is almost zero. The only thing that would change that is if there are some complications because this person is in some sort of protected class, and that wouldn't make any difference unless someone has done something stupid like make jokes or remarks about the protected class.

Peyton Irby MS

it is generally best to terminate as soon as it is apparent that the employee will not be suitable. i assume that management and HR agree that the employee will not be able to ever perfrom as the job requires. waiting to take appropriate action may give the employee some idea of entitlement to continued employment which increases the chance of litigation.

Balloonman

Don't stress over this, obviously this is not working out, and today is Friday a perfect day for terminations! As the previous posts stated, document the performance issues, let them know it is not working out and have a ice cold one tonight after work.
If you think this makes you feel bad, what about in 3 months when this person has continued to underperform and is still around........it will get a lot harder.
My $0.02 worth.
DJ The Balloonman

Don D

You ARE in an 'at will employment' state and might have clear sailing with this termination. The only concern I have after not seeing it addressed in your question, is whether you have a good employee training program in place and have utilized it before concluding that she cannot master the tasks at hand. Your job description listed something like "Good computer skills". That's virtually meaningless in today's world of multiple computer programs and software. I suggest you more clearly define your requirement going forward. But, back to her termination: I agree you should move away from the alcohol (mis)assumptions and deal with performance. You may, in fact likely WILL, lose the UI case, but that's certainly no reason to retain her. Based on what you say, I wouldn't even bother to appeal the ruling that will most likely be in her favor. Before you replace her, I suggest making sure you accurately state the job's description and that you have a well defined training program that's followed. Otherwise, you'll repeat this scenario.

Cotterwood

Your instinct to terminate is correct! Don't you have a probationary period for new employees? If so, you're within your right to terminate this employee.
If for some reason you don't have a probationary period for new ees, get busy documenting everything, including the warnings, so you can terminate ASAP.
Did you drug/alcohol test this ee before hiring? If you don't, you may want to consider putting this into effect for the future.

For future: Do you have a Alcohol And Substance Abuse Policy? If not, I would be happy to send you a copy of ours, or for that matter a copy of our recently updated personnel policy manual - via email. Our Substance abuse policy is quite extensive, as we are a public agency and are self-ensured thru a third party. Our Administrator just sent us an updated version of their own policy they wanted us to incorporate - which we did. It really leaves no room for
misunderstanding. It's 3 pages long. Let me know if you're interested. I'd be happy to send it.

In the mean time - run, don't walk, - this employee to the front door.

LisaMN

Your risk is very low at this point. This is the time to terminate before more problems arise.

Just a suggestion, we have moved away from requiring a HS education (could be discriminatory depending on the population). What most managers are after is the ability to read, write, and speak English. We have included that in the KSA area of our job descriptions.

mrbill

With a two week employee, absent any discriminatory angles, "just do it".
Rarely would one be called to task for terminating a 2 week employee. Some hires, just do not work out.