1. Review your company handbook, personnel policy manual, or any other written guidelines including memos and e-mail notices.

Follow the termination procedures precisely.

2. Beware of unwritten policies. Even without an official statement of employment policies, your company’s actual practices may constitute an unwritten policy that you can be held to.

3. Review hidden employment agreements. A letter or memo may have the same strength as an explicit employment contract. You can even, in some circumstances, be held to contracts which have expired. Have a lawyer look over such documents.

4. For long term employees you may be required to show “good cause” for firing them, generally one who has worked for you three years or more. Poor job performance, or economic factors, can be considered good cause, but proceed cautiously.

5. Prepare honest performance reviews. Be honest if someone’s work performance is not up to standards. Ignoring poor performance to spare an employee’s feelings may backfire when you fire the employee later.

Any written statement of the reason for termination should be short, simple, and straightforward. Avoid any personal remarks that could be misinterpreted by the employee The termination notice will be closely scrutinized in a lawsuit.

6. Meet with the employee, and explain why they are being fired. Provide an opportunity for the employee to ask questions, discuss benefits, or state grievances.

7. Whenever you meet with an employee, take notes of your discussions and place them in the employee’s personnel file. Such notes will be valuable evidence in a lawsuit.

8. Consult with an attorney before firing anyone who has made complaints to management about mistreatment, harassment, discrimination, safety issues, etc. Firing them may look like an attempt to silence a troublemaker.

9. Familiarize yourself with federal and state laws that may apply when you fire someone. Check with an attorney before getting yourself into trouble.

10. When you do have to fire someone, do it with someone present who can act as a witness if necessary later on.

11. Let the employee clean out their desk privately, at night or on a weekend, under supervision of course, or allow them to leave through a back door if they do not want to face anyone.