Discharging an employee

Plan carefully where and when the termination will take place and who will participate. Keep it short. State that the employee is being terminated based on reason X. Anticipate emotional reactions by the employee. Do not apologize for having to terminate the employee. Encourage feedback, but do not engage in a dialogue, especially not negotiation, with the employee. Pay attention to what the employee says when given an opportunity to respond to the termination. Ignore pressure by the employee, say that any legal proceedings are fine. Collect all company property at once, shut down the employee’s remote access to the computer system, to customers and clients. Do not allow the discharged employee to linger after receiving the notice. Document how the termination meeting went. Make sure that HR processes the final pay for the (former) employee right away.