You might consider making some notes to this effect to include with your sample memorandum. This is not the right message, so before you go too far, you need to decide what measures you'll take against insubordination, and then when it will be too much? Remember this rule, "if it's not written down, it didn't happen." So without written substantiation, the hearing officer won't believe your side of the story. Sacking a employee should be done with compassion and with the firm in mind. At times you will want to offer some condolence, but other times this causes legal problems. Name-calling, especially in the presence of other personnel, is unacceptable and may result in disciplinary action for disobedience. Sherry, an office administrator, has been with the firm for a year. o His performance will drop dramatically, and this will affect the results of your department and business. Set a target date for the high-risk worker to leave the business.

Not only do you want the letter to be sensitive to the jobholder's feelings, but you also need to give detailed rationale for the termination. Remember you have to let the disgruntled worker be the first to mention resignation for it to stand up in court. o For minor misconduct or bad performance, was the employee given a reasonable amount of time and number of chances to improve? The final element of the firing notification is the sign off. This in turn leads to a wrongful termination suit with your "I'm sorry" as the start witness. Now and then it becomes necessary to terminate workers for economic reasons.