Dismissals are a dirty business, but necessary for a firm to survive and compete successfully. Here you must give the employee chances to upgrade before layoff. First, you'll layoff good people who depend on you and your company to support their families. Frankly, you'll likely not conduct an exit interview, especially when you're a manager of a small or medium-sized company. If it is not all ready known, then they will handle meekly what can sometimes be hard to communicate for a supervisor. Feel free to call the Personnel Boss at 555-1212 if there are any further questions. Although the claims are bogus, you might still lose - remember, if your improper separation suit goes to court, you'll probably lose 70% of the time, the national average. It is also important to remind the worker that they can appeal the decision for layoff).

If the contract states the employee's problems warrant separation, then you must carefully craft a lay off notice to highlight this portion of the contract. As a reminder, when you lay off the jobholder due to "business desires," you can't refill the position for at least a year, or you risk the employee bringing a improper lay off suit. In fact, there's a trend for judges to treat "exempted" small businesses the same as big companies on dismissals. 2) Give him a copy of the warning. A worker warning form is an excellent resource that every small company owner and Hr supervisor should consider using. Also, you may want an Hr manager or an attorney to review it. Because they live in an "at will" state, they think they can dismiss anyone whenever they choose.