Getting Through It

Firing an employee requires patience and persistence. Here's advice from experts and managers who've done it.

• Take the long view. "Recognize that it is going to be gut-wrenching," says Ruth Ann Killion, chief of the planning, research and evaluation division for the Census Bureau. "Recognize it's going to take a lot of time and that even if you see very clearly that this should be done next week, the process takes time and the employee has rights that you cannot trample on."
• Follow the steps. With poor performers, take a gradually escalating series of actions: explaining the problem, coaching and counseling, and perhaps initiating a lower form of discipline. Make sure your expectations are as clear and objective as possible. "If you take those steps, you build a paper trail that will support the action you might ultimately have to take," says Timothy Dirks, president and chief executive officer of GRA Inc., an HR and management consulting firm in Silver Spring, Md.
• Assess alternatives. "You have to make sure you've tried every other avenue," says Rob Wilkerson, an Internal Revenue Service senior executive based in St. Louis. If counseling the employee doesn't work, then consider a suspension, reassignment or demotion.
• Test the waters. "There are two critical variables: institutional will to do it and personnel folks who are sharp and provide the right kind of advice," says Daniel Michels, a regulatory consultant in Silver Spring, Md. If you don't have both, "the odds are stacked against you." Interview the HR and legal experts assigned to help you. If necessary, ask for a change.
• Learn the facts. "Arm yourself with knowledge," says federal employment attorney William N. Rudman. "If you think you're getting bum advice from your so-called in-house experts, make them show you the regulation or case law."
• Face your fears. Most re-movals are resolved without an appeal or complaint, and agencies win the majority of cases at the Merit Systems Protection Board and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. "If you know in your heart that you have not discriminated, that you have taken the action for the right reason, then you should not fear it," says Joe Maas, a former director of personnel and an assistant administrator at the Small Business Administration who retired in 1995.
• Put it in writing. Notify the em-ployee with a letter signed by someone in the agency with the proper authority. Have the letter hand-delivered and ask the employee to sign a statement that he or she received it, or send it by certified and registered mail. Include the employee's rights and, when appropriate, instructions on seeking help from an employee assistance program. "The letter should contain very specific charges," Dirks says. If the employee is being removed for absence without leave, for example, list the dates and times he or she skipped work.
• Distance yourself. "Do not let the person's emotions affect the process of what you're doing," Maas says. "You have to go into a very detached mode." Do not send mixed messages ("I hate to do this…" or "If it were up to me…") that could encourage the employee to fight the decision.