Pause and think before you terminate employees

While the unemployment rate continues to remain low, given the current potential for a recession or sustained economic downturn, more employers are firing employees. Some employers are also seeing more discrimination claims following terminations.

It’s impossible to prevent all fired employees from filing claims, but the more proactive an employer is leading up to a termination, the more likely it is that an employee won’t file a claim. This article is a reminder to employers to proceed with caution on all termination decisions.

Pause

In her book, Thoughtfully Fit: Your Training Plan for Life & Business Success, Darcy Luoma stresses the need to pause, and then think, before you act. This simple model applies to all termination decisions.

Pausing helps make sure the termination decision is sound. While most employees are employees at will (and may be terminated with or without cause), given the numerous bases for discrimination and retaliation claims, it’s preferable for an employer to have a legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for firing an employee.

Taking a pause also allows an employer to determine whether it has gathered sufficient information before making the final termination decision: