The first time you fire an employee, you may be just as nervous as he was at the job interview. When the need for employee dismissal arises, it rarely comes as a surprise to either the employer or the jobholder involved. As a manager, you will have to earn the respect of your employees. Therefore, if an employee and his legal counselor file a bias claim, you can prove your decision was lawful and nondiscriminatory in nature. In Chapters 2 and 3, you get a listing of grounds for sacking or laying off a worker. In recent years, courts have passed new laws that make dismissing an employee harder. It is also important to take note of the number of past violations the worker has and what further steps the manger must take if the behavior continues.

As you now know, firing a worker is not just saying 'you're fired'. In other words, having a good severance package to offer a departing worker moves Personnel into the realm of PR, making the effort put into the package all the more worthwhile. As a rule of thumb, if the dismissal or separating was for some reason other than willful misconduct, the employee will be eligible. If you feel that rehabilitation is still possible, the next step you take may be a project or a series of projects that improves your personnel job productivity. Every company should have set ground rules and standards. By fixing the problem the first time, your difficult worker's behavior may improve. Here are some important words of caution you must keep in mind during this time. A worker warning has several uses.