This section covers legal duties affecting you and your small company during a reduction in force. You and the jobholder should sign all written documents to show the jobholder knew of the possible separation. This formal warning should show that you talked to the worker about the problem and that he or she is aware of it. Whatever the case, this employee can lower firm morale and hurt relations with customers and suppliers. Your report of the examination serves as your papers justifying the layoff. o Has her legal adviser send you demand notices to complain about unlawful treatment or to ask you to clarify your actions.

o A severance packages cuts the chance of a lawsuit with or without a release. To ensure all of the details are covered, it is helpful to create templates for letters and other written evidence used in the lay off method. Then describe what you want the jobholder to do to fix their problem. This gives you legal substantiation the worker knew why you were letting her or him go. There are plenty of stupid and wrongful reasons that you want to avoid such as dismissing someone because he's left-handed (stupid) or because he's old (wrongful). Yes, you can send warning notices through e-mail, although it's not common today. The moral of this story is only document when you're sacking (and disciplining) for a legitimate and legal reason. With this number of laws, no wonder managers these days feel frightened, worried and cautious whenever they face problem employees needing termination. There are several factors that you must consider before taking this step.