Help! How do I fire someone ... ?

[catmarshall]

Anybody out there with advice on disciplinary and dismissal issues? I work for a small company (10 people) as PA to the UK MD ... we've had performance issues with an administrator (I'm effectively her Line Manager) and my boss and I have agreed we need to dismiss her.  Only it's fallen on my shoulders to do it and I'm exceptionally stressed about it!  
I really need some advice on how to handle the situation as I work in the same office as this person.  My boss and I have agreed I need to first counsel the person to see if they improve (which I don't think they will!) and then fire them.
Anyone else been in this awful situation?  Any advice welcome ... !

[raindance]

That's difficult one, Cattie.  Dismissal is a minefield, and you need to ensure that you don't do anything that can result in an employment tribunal hearing.

"Effectively her Line Manager" is an interesting phrase.  Her Line Manager should be stated somewhere in her contract, and that is the person who should be having this conversation with her.

First of all, have a look at your company grievance/disciplinary procedures and follow those.

Assuming you are this person's Line Manager ... here is a basic structure as to how I would handle such matters.

Step one
Arrange to meet Miss X at an appointed time.  Say that you wish to discuss work issues with her on an informal basis, but allow her the opportunity of trade union representation (if relevant to your company) or to be accompanied by a friend.

At the meeting, state that the status of the meeting is informal, with no further action intended at this stage.  You have been asked to speak with her about her performance.  List the ways in which she has not achieved the required performance, and point to evidence.  Ask her, after each point, for her comments. There may be all sorts of reasons why she is not performing well, including domestic matters.  Offer support, counselling, occupational health - whatever resources that are available and appropriate.  Make notes as you go along.

At the conclusion of the meeting, draw up TOGETHER, a plan for improvement and target dates for improvement.  

Type up the notes, give them to her to agree and sign and return to you (with a copy for herself) and file them in her file.

Step two
Allow her the opportunity of trade union representation (if relevant to your company) or to be accompanied by a friend.  Explain that the status of the meeting is formal. This is the verbal warning stage (you could do this at step one, but I assume that you would like this person to shape up and stay).

Step three
Written warning.

Step four
Dismissal

At all stages, copies of notes and letters, memos etc relating to this matter should be filed in the staff member's personnel file.  

Hope this is of some help.

Best wishes,

Raindance

[cmeknit]

Firing someone is never easy, but with some preparation and moral support from your boss, it’s possible to manage through.  Also, I'm in the US and am sure that labor relations in the UK are managed differently than they are here.  You may need to check with your local Employment Department (or whatever it's called where you are) for advice.

First, document the deficiencies that this person (let’s call her Jane) has ... in writing. I.e., “Contrary to company policy, Jane has been using the company FedEx account to send personal packages” or “Jane has not completed the monthly report for the past 3 months” - whatever is set out in her job description that she’s not doing or personnel policies to which she is not adhering.

Next, determine the acceptable performance level and write that down too.  Then use this document (the corrective action plan) to have the counseling session with Jane.  In the examples above, the corrective actions could be “Jane will not use the company FedEx account to send personal packages” or “Jane must complete compilation of the monthly report by the 10th of every month”.  

Have a frank discussion with Jane, telling her that her job is on the line due to her poor performance.  Detail the corrective actions necessary to retain her job and the agreed upon time frame for improvement.  Have her sign the corrective action plan acknowledging that she understands the issues and agrees to the plan.

Then you monitor Jane’s performance over the agreed upon time frame.  Should Jane’s performance continue to be sub par, that’s when you have the “You’re Fired” discussion.  Tell her that even though you’ve counseled her and given her a chance to improve her performance, her unwillingness or inability to change has led to this consequence.  

I’m sure labor law in the UK varies from that in the US, but in addition to her final paycheck,  we had to give her a check for her unused vacation time or send it to her within 3 days.  Be sure to have all your ducks in a row in that regard.

The only time I had to fire someone, I worried about having to confront “Liz” and put a single mother out of work.  But “Liz” had stolen from a guest of the company and was using our FedEx account to send personal packages (to the tune of several hundred dollars).  When we had the “You’re Fired” talk, I think she was more relieved than me.  She never asked for a reference (nor would I have given her one), and I learned that I really could manage through a very difficult situation.  

I’m sure you’ll do just fine.  Like Raindance says, document everything.

[geminigirl]

I agree with both of the responses above.  I have had to fire someone, at my last job and it wasn't very comfortable.  We didn't have Union representation but I had the HR representative sit in on both meetings.

The problem was that the person - our receptionist / switchboard operator - kept coming in very late or not at all, and not letting us know until late in the morning what she was doing.  This went on for about two weeks when I was then asked by my boss, as her Line Manager, to sort it out formally - I had had a couple of informal chats with her about timekeeping and reliability etc.  So, at this first official though informal meeting I told her what I saw the problem as being, asked her the reasons for it, and asked her what she thought she could do to improve, and got a commitment from her to improve.

She was good for about a week and then it all started again.  She lived with her parents and her mother used to drive her to work.  Then the parents went on holiday but made other arrangements for her to get to work.  It was even worse than before!  She didn't show up for three days and we had no calls from her.  Calls to her home went unanswered.

So, when she eventually came in, I had to fire her.  It turned out that she'd been staying at her boyfriend's house (mummy didn't approve of the boy!) and having late nights etc etc.

She was very tearful and apologetic but it had gone beyond that and the MD wanted her gone.  I didn't have a choice and, frankly, didn't think she deserved another chance.

I had her mother on the phone when she got back from her hols and she was very understanding and said she would have fired her herself in my position.  It didn't make me feel very much better!

When I left that company for my current position, I met up with a friend of hers ... two months after she was fired from the company, she was pregnant - at 18 and single.

So, the short version is, informal chat, listing the problems and ways to fix them.  Give her a fixed period to show an improvement.  Have a representative either from HR or the union with her.  Let her know what the consequences are if no improvement is made.

If there's no improvement within the specified time, out she goes.

Hope this waffly post helps in some way ;-)

[Jackie G]

Gemini

I'm sure that in your position, your receptionist was guilty of gross misconduct which usually carries fairly instant dismissal but there are laws to be obeyed, and the verbal/written warning route must be followed or else you find yourself at a tribunal and in the wrong!

Jackie, Peer Moderator
www.iqps.org

[gee4]

Yes Jackie is right.  Surely you have an HR policy in place for this kind of thing - procedure must be followed accordingly.

G

[reddrogue]

Hi geminigirl.  Are you in the UK or the US?

[bethalize]

You have to give someone notification that there is a problem and give them a chance to change.

When it comes to the firing, take them somewhere quiet and tell them they are fired. Stop there. Don't ask them to justify themselves, don't say anything else until they have accepted that fact. Make it clean, make it quick.

Bethalize
Peer Moderator

[geminigirl]

I'm in the UK.  Sorry, forgot to say that we did have a verbal warning placed on her file.  I think I said that we did have the HR representative in on both meetings.  And what I didn't say that we had a third meeting - sorry to give the wrong info.

The chronological order was:

1.  Meeting and giving verbal warning, which was placed on her flile.  (I wasn't present at that meeting as I was on sick leave but that was carried out by the HR person, though she did phone me to say this was happening, on the request of our MD.)
2.  Meeting and giving an official written warning.
3.  Final meeting and firing.

Our HR person (who wasn't that brilliant, to tell the truth!) was present at all meetings and I was very concerned that we followed the proper procedure.

[Jackie G]

Hmm, interesting then that your HR person didn't fire her but you did.  But if your HR person wasn't that great throughout... wonderful!

Jackie, Peer Moderator
www.iqps.org

[whitesatin]

It sounds from your post that she has been fired?  If so, did you do it, and how did you carry out the task?  How did it go?

WhiteSatin

[geminigirl]

Was Whitesatin's question for me?  Wasn't quite clear!  At the final meeting, she was very tearful (which was quite distressing for me) but I asked her if she knew why we were now having the meeting (this was after she came back to work after three more days AWOL) and she said yes, she did.  I told her that I was very sorry but, after the warnings that she'd had, and the time we'd given her to improve her timekeeping / absenteeism, we had no choice but to terminate her employment with immediate effect, and that she'd be paid up to the end of the month.

I later had a phone call from her mother thanking me for our patience and that she would have done the same thing, under the circumstances.

[countrigal]

Sounds like you handled it appropriately and very professionally.  Great way to handle such a difficult job.

CountriGal
Peer Moderator

[whitesatin]

Yes, GeminiGirl, the post I made was for you.  Thanks for the update.  You must be very relieved that it's over.  I hope you can have peace now.  Have a great weekend!

WhiteSatin