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"George, how long is it going to take you to find a new job"? Such a decisive question and you never mention to the employee the words, "Your Fired".

The interesting thing is how one gets to that question. At our luxury inn and spa, all of our employees are expected to work as self-directed, non-supervised employees. They are instructed up front that if they do not maintain independent work ethics that they will be offered the opportunity to seek employment elsewhere.

It may seem easy enough to ask the question, but there are actual steps in the process that are written out and followed by our staff. If an employee fails to live up to specified job standards that employee is brought in for "coaching". Where they are instructed on the proper job performance. This is documented as a verbal warning.

If they repeat the offense or commit another offense they are brought in for a written "warning". Of course they must sign both the "coaching" form and the "warning" form. Failure to do so results in "job suspension" until they sign the form. All employees signed that they agreed to our "job education" policies and agreed to "job suspension" if they fail to participate and sign the "coaching" and "warning" forms.

Written warnings are given 30 day time limits for job improvement and the employee acknowledges that they can be fired at anytime for any job performance issue. Our goal is to educate employees to independent job performance and at the same time create a positive environment for employees that do not work out to easily separate from us.

When the time comes to have the talk we simply say to the employee, "George, we have been working on issues related to your job performance and it seems that you and us don't quite fit. As you know we never like to fire people and we think we can live with your job performance for about two more weeks. How long is it going to take you to find a new job?"

Usually the employee hands in a letter of resignation in the next few days. Sometimes clever employees drag it out two weeks and then give two weeks notice. It is an easy way out for both sides that shows respect.

Learn more about this author, William Sawyer.
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