Gaining Support for Termination

“You can’t fire anyone nowadays.”

I hear that a lot from first-line supervisors. In most cases, it’s not true. Their organizations fire people - in some cases, a lot of people – but the perception among many in the supervisory ranks is that upper management and the lawyers won’t back terminations.

The reason for that reluctance is usually fear of litigation. Multimillion dollar wrongful discharge cases are not as common as management believes but the perception that they’re being handed down every day has had a real chilling effect on many a termination decision. One of the open secrets of the workplace is just how scared upper management is of being dragged into courtrooms. When jury behavior resembles a spin of the roulette wheel, who can blame the executives for being jumpy?

First-line supervisors who succeed in getting management backing in termination cases implement a conscious strategy to get them on board. They don’t assume that the facts speak for themselves or that this is a vote of confidence in them and their career. They go into the process with the full realization that they are going to have to be persuasive.

Some of their techniques are:

• Get the in-house lawyers on your side as early as possible. Savvy supervisors talk with the company attorneys about the problem performer long before proposing termination. They get tips on documentation and wording. They brief the lawyers on why the behavior is intolerable. This is a good testing ground because attorneys are trained to be skeptical. It is far better to have some holes poked in an argument by the lawyers who are on your side than to get unpleasantly surprised in a subsequent hearing.
• Get Human Resources on your side. The same reasoning as with the in-house lawyers will apply here. Upper management will be reluctant to overrule Human Resources on a termination case. HR may drive you nuts but you need them.
• Be reasonable. Unless a safety issue requiring immediate correction is involved, make sure that you’ve given the employee a reasonable chance to improve. Explore whether the employee needs training or additional resources or simply a clearer understanding of the priorities of the job. Go with the assumption that most people want to do a good job.
• Understate your case. One overstatement and your credibility will start to unravel. Drain the emotion and focus on the facts. Be very wary of ascribing bad motives. As much as possible, let the facts speak for themselves.
• Use a chronology. Tie down specific dates of counseling and discipline and any significant conversations or events in between.
• Describe the impact of the misconduct or poor performance. The impact may seem obvious to you but it may not be to people who don’t know your work unit. If the behavior has gone on for an extended period of time, you’ll face questions of how – if it is intolerable - you were able to tolerate it that long.
• Consider precedent. How have similar cases been handled? Is there anything that can be pointed out that would indicate different treatment on the basis of race, sex, national origin or any of the other illegal categories of discrimination?
• Check out any intemperate remarks or actions by your side. Has management done anything that was improper or rash? Is there anything in your own behavior that may indicate a lack of objectivity? Be sure to bring that to the attention of HR and the in-house attorneys.
• Examine the employee’s work record. How long has the person been with the organization? Have there been other problems in the past or is the recent problem an aberration in an otherwise good record?
• Don’t let personalities cloud your judgment. Zero in on performance and treat the person, at all times, with courtesy and respect.
  
  Remember, if you blow your top and act rashly, you’ll squander any chance of getting upper management to back your decision. It is far better to take your time and achieve your goal than to vent and miss it.