Message #53474

[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 ;-)