By Lynne Curry The final revenge of the difficult, fired employee. You’ve hesitated to fire him, you’ve given him chance after chance, but he’s not getting better. In fact, he’s getting worse, and so is the situation. You owe it to your other employees, who consider this employee toxic or carry his shirked workload burden, to bless this employee out the door. Unfortunately, … [Read more...] about 7 strategies for firing without backfiring
Termination
The dreaded “you’re fired” interview
By Lynne Curry You dread what you’re about to do. Even though your employee deserves to be fired, you hate firing anyone. You also fear the damage a fired employee can create with false wrongful termination allegations. If you’d to fire without backfiring and in a way that leaves the fired employee with dignity, here’s what you need to know. Do your job right Have you done … [Read more...] about The dreaded “you’re fired” interview
Employees who ask to be fired: A new trend to obtain a strategic advantage
By Lynne Curry At first, you think you’re imagining things. Your employee, “Kevin,” seems to want you to fire him. It started with Kevin not showing up for two critical team meetings in a row. When you sent him a text asking, “what happened” after the first, he responded, “It wasn’t on my radar.” You sent him an individual meeting request to ask him about this, but he was a … [Read more...] about Employees who ask to be fired: A new trend to obtain a strategic advantage
Quiet firing meets quiet quitting
By Lynne Curry Quiet quitting, the employee behavior pattern that swept through the nation this summer after a viral TikTok video in July, has met its match—quiet firing. Employers, disgusted by employees that consider it justified to do the bare minimum at work, are blessing these employees out the door. Managers take action In September 2022, 91% of 1,000 managers surveyed … [Read more...] about Quiet firing meets quiet quitting
Quiet quitting: The new ‘just say no’ employee pushback
By Lynne Curry Gone are the days when employers could count on employees competing to go “above and beyond” to rise faster in their organizations. Employers now face “quiet quitting,” a trend that emerged in July 2022 from a viral TikTok video to become a phenomenon noted on Wikipedia and discussed in Forbes and the Wall Street Journal. Quiet quitting is more than employees … [Read more...] about Quiet quitting: The new ‘just say no’ employee pushback
Russian-American workplace discrimination: It’s a thing now
By Lynne Curry Question: Like many other employees that need highly skilled employees and want to diversify their labor pool, ours has hired several Russian emigrants. Other than coworkers complaining that these employees’ accents make understanding them difficult, we had no problems—until Russia invaded Ukraine. At first, nothing occurred that created worry. Many of our … [Read more...] about Russian-American workplace discrimination: It’s a thing now
High at work: Anyone else smell that?
By Paul Edwards More often than you would think, we get calls from managers wondering what they can do about someone whom they think is impaired at work. When that happens, we immediately go into crisis control mode because, well, impairment at work is never acceptable. In this article, we are going to discuss impairment and odors from the perspective of marijuana … [Read more...] about High at work: Anyone else smell that?
Don’t write a positive reference for a problem employee; instead…
By Lynne Curry Question: After an investigation, we fired one of our employees for threatening and stalking two co-workers. He now demands a positive letter of reference, which I'm writing. I tried to appease him with an innocuous letter that gave the dates on which he'd worked here along with what his job duties were. He refused to accept this, and frankly he scares … [Read more...] about Don’t write a positive reference for a problem employee; instead…
The least you need to know about at-will employment
By Paul Edwards At-will employment can seem freeing for employers, but it can also provide a false sense of security. On the one hand, it’s liberating to be able to terminate employees for any lawful reason at any time. On the other, unlawful termination—or activities that can be construed as such—can put you at risk for litigation and are not protected by the tenants of … [Read more...] about The least you need to know about at-will employment
Hiring mistakes come at a higher price amid pandemic
A hiring mistake could cost your office more today than it would have a year ago. New research from a global staffing firm shows more than three in four senior managers surveyed (77 per cent) admit to recruiting the wrong candidate for a role, and more than half (56 per cent) said the negative impact is more severe now than it was a year ago. Four months lost on one hiring … [Read more...] about Hiring mistakes come at a higher price amid pandemic