Certainly, if the bad worker is destroying the department's performance and esprit de corps, then your only choice may be immediate separation. Otherwise, you find yourself in the middle of a wrongful termination suit. o Tell the employee you're her contact person for any more questions. More importantly, the removal of the difficult worker will give you more time to run the business and increase results. The grounds for sacking a worker may be valid, but handling the situation badly can cancel this. o Job loss on the account of cost cuts. When it becomes necessary to sack someone, another question you must ask is, "How will this affect the remaining workforce? Once the business has completed the investigation, the supervisor should make the worker aware of the findings. Therefore, don't talk about an ex-employee unless a potential employer is asking you for a reference. There are plenty of stupid and improper reasons that you want to avoid such as terminating someone because he's left-handed (stupid) or because he's old (wrongful). The worker separation form can be a strong line of defense if you become involved in litigation about sacking an employee. The employee should call your state department of labor or go to your state's website to get the requirements for filing.

You can use escalating discipline for gross misconduct, but it isn't common. Such thinking is short-sighted and oblivious to the positive public relations benefits of having a good severance package. When writing a notification of lay off it is important to be straight to the point. This will help not only the jobholder, but also the manager and the workplace esprit de corps.
A vice president at Duke Energy recommended firing an employee who in 2006 questioned the legality of payments that the utility made to big corporate customers. "My opinion is that he should definitely go, one way or the other," the vice president More