YOU’RE FIRED!! 

You’re fed up, disgusted, angry, and just mad as a hornet. How could your employee be so stupid? So rude? So lazy? Day go by with these thoughts circling around in your head, then weeks, months, even years of pent up emotion until you finally express those fateful words “You’re Fired!” Then you start to worry: “What have I done? Am I going to get sued? I hope I never hear from her again . . . !!” And then you do.

The last few weeks I’ve talked to numerous doctors who want to fire an employee. Can I fire her because she has been doing her personal laundry in our washer and dryer using all of my  soap? Can I fire her because she gets so many personal calls a day that she doesn’t have time to work? Can I fire her because she makes every good new employee I hire quit? Can I fire her because she’s late basically every day? Can I fire her because she used the office credit card to charge a new wardrobe?

So, how do you know when you can and when you can’t?! The answer is floating around in a gray pool of ever changing law. But, there are some guidelines you can usually rely on, such as: 
  
1. Avoid Surprise. Employees should never be surprised about a termination. Despite at-will employment laws in California, you should always have adequate documentation for terminations, especially those regarding relatively minor policy violations. Employees should clearly know the behavior they are doing is unacceptable and should know the consequences if the behavior continues. Don’t beat around the bush and try to be nice. Be clear and precise and document in writing and give a copy of the documentation to the employee. For example, as to the employee washing her laundry in the practice’s washer and dryer, that employee should be expressly told that she may not do her laundry at the office, during working or non-working hours.
  
2. Make Separations the Employee’s Choice. Employee should make the choice as to whether they wish to continue to work for you by abiding by your policies and guidelines. Your policies should be set forth in writing and should be agreed upon before hire and each time policies change. So, if an employee chooses to be late every day, she is choosing not to work in your office any longer. 
  
3. Don’t Punish Employees by Termination for Pursuing Their Legal Rights. Employees may legally take time off when they are pregnant, may take time off to serve on a jury, have the right not to be sexually harassed, may file a workers compensation claim, can refuse to illegally/fraudulently bill insurance companies, can complain to Cal-OSHA about you, may refuse to disclose their personal medical information, etc., etc.
  
4. Mind Your P’s and Q’s. The dentist whose employee was using his charge card for all kinds of clothes and other personal purchases was afraid to fire that employee because she knew he was filing fraudulent insurance claims and she knew he was having an affair with another employee in the office. He’s stuck between a rock and a hard place. Women cost money, what can I say?
  
5. Follow your own written policies. If you have written policies regarding termination, discipline, layoffs, behavior guidelines, etc. Read what you wrote before you take action. You are bound by your own, self-made laws as well as California State and federal laws.
  
And, as always, good luck helps as well!

© Bette Robin, DDS, JD Mar/Apr 2000