Dismissal Meeting For An Employee Layoff

Employee Dismissal

An employee is considered dismissed by his or employer when the employer severs his or her employment affiliation, or relationship, with the employee permanently owing to reasons connected to the employee’s behavior or competence level. Except for a few exceptions, employers who hand their employees dismissals from employment ought to give them the legally mandated employment termination notices. When an employer is dismissing his or her employee, the employer ought to make certain that the employee gets every compensation sum that he or she is entitled to (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). The sums may include vacation indemnity, overtime, severance pay, and wages. There are diverse steps that employers can take to ensure that they fulfill their statutory obligations when dismissing employees and ensure that they do not escalate any particular hostilities relating to the dismissals.

How Managers Can Cope With Negative Employee Layoff-Related Emotions

A manager can cope rather well with the unpleasant emotions that are attendant to employee layoffs through taking a variety of measures. First, the manager can cope effectively with the emotions by remaining detached to the employees’ concerns, tasks, and emotions. Notably, a dismissed employee leaves laden with numerous concerns and emotions to think through and diverse tasks that they should handle (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). The manager, being a compassionate being, may easily get trapped into reflecting on the employee’s feelings, the possible reactions of the employee’s family, and the employee’s future.

The manager should take those concerns as rightly belonging to the employee rather than him or her (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). The manager should take his responsibility as limited to figuring out who will serve in the position left behind by the dismissed employee and managing the effects of the employee’s exit on other employees and the related matters. The manager should resist the urge to let his or her empathy as regards the employee be a significant emotional burden on him or her.

Second, the manager can cope effectively with the emotions by going on a break, or vacation, following the dismissal of an employee. Going on vacation will allow the manager recover from the emotional drain associated with the dismissal. The manager may indulge in activities that help accelerate his or her recovery from the attendant stress such as taking hot baths, spending extended periods playing with his or her children, or engaging in mountain climbing.

Lastly, the manager can cope effectively with the emotions by carrying out all the tasks related to the dismissal professionally (Magoon & De, 2007). While the manager cannot regulate the actions of the employee, he or she can express, as well as maintain, a professional, positive attitude to assist in preventing any possible bitterness. The manager should keep the dismissal meeting’s tone positive to ensure that it is not carried out in a tension-filled atmosphere. Such an atmosphere would make the employee indignant and increase his or her persuasion for seeking legal redress to the employer’s detriment (CCH Australia, 2009). Besides, such an atmosphere may make the employee resort to an unreceptive rampage.

It would be professional for the manager to plan out the details of the meeting in advance and adhere to the plan throughout the course of the meeting. The plan should spell out details like how the manager would break news regarding the dismissal, the staff to take over the duties to be left behind by the employee, and the recruitment process that would lead to the employee’s replacement. The plan should spell out all what the manager will need to come along with to the dismissal meeting. For instance, the manager may need to come to the meeting with the employee’s paycheck, the relevant statutory documents, and a letter confirming to the employee the benefits owed to him or her by his or her employer (Bliss & Thornton, 2006).

How To Conduct a Dismissal Meeting

Notably, employers find it challenging to dismiss employees since it is commonly typified by unpleasant emotions and experiences. Even then, appropriately executed termination meetings help prevent the occurrence of the emotions and experiences and preserve the dignity of the employees. The preservation of the dignity commonly assists in defusing the tensions that characterize the meetings significantly. As noted earlier, there are diverse steps that employers can take to ensure that they fulfill their statutory obligations when dismissing employees and ensure that they do not escalate any particular hostilities relating to the dismissals.

First, when a manager resolves to dismiss an employee from employment through a dismissal meeting, the manager should determine a suitable venue for the meeting (Magoon & De, 2007). The ideal venue would be place far away from other employees to ensure that they do not follow the meeting’s proceedings. The venue should be in a quiet place, which is deemed private and neutral especially by the affected employee (CCH Australia, 2009). Such a venue would significantly help in avoiding disturbing outbursts by any person participating in the meeting.

Second, the manager should determine a suitable time for holding the meeting. Generally, many managers prefer holding such meetings in the early days of the week during morning hours. When an employee comes to a meeting in which his or her employment is terminated, he or she needs a long duration to reflect on how he or she has been treated by his or her employer (McCulloch, 1984).

When an employee is laid off at the beginning of the week, he or she is likely to get enough time to focus on her or his future and ways of landing another employment. On the other hand, when an employee is laid off at the end of the week, he or she is likely to think of how to revenge against her or his employer. Dismissals are ideally done in the morning since people are likely to be more equipped, rested, and fresher to handle adversity along with stress than in the evening (CCH Australia, 2009).

Third, the manager should acquire the documents and other items that may be required in the meeting beforehand. The items include contacts for agencies capable of dealing with the possible security or medical emergencies and guidelines on how the meeting will be run. Fourth, at the meeting, after the settling down of the affected or relevant parties, the manager should give a brief background of the concerns informing the convening of the meeting (Magoon & De, 2007).

The manager should give satisfactory justifications for the dismissal of the employee being considered. Notably, there are many fired employees who sue their employees merely because they are in pursuit of clear explanations of why they got dismissed (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). The onus is on the manager to provide rational explanation of the need for the dismissal.

Fifth, the manager should allow the employee offer his or her interpretation or explanation of the relevant events. When the employee is giving out the interpretation or explanation, he or she should not be interrupted (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). Sixth, the manager should make it clear that the decision arrived at by the employer is deemed to final. That will allow the manager keep her or his cool and ensure that situation remains under his or her control.

Seventh, the manager should guide the employee through the benefits that the employer will afford him or her. The benefits may include life insurance cover, health insurance cover, vacation pay, and separation pay (McCulloch, 1984). When the manager is taking the employee through the benefits, he should present the employer with the relevant staff releases. If the employee’s paycheck is ready, the manager should hand it over to the employee after the releases’ presentation.

Eighth, the manager should take the employee through the applicable policy on job reference. If the policy allows for the provision of job titles, employment dates, or salary histories to third parties, the manager should inform the leaving employee about it. The manager should inform the employee about the expected contact between the employee’s current employer and his or her future employers (CCH Australia, 2009). Ninth, before the closing of the meeting, the manager should ensure that the employee hands over the items belonging to the employer in his or her possession. The items may include company credit cards, cell phones, keys, or company cars.

Compensation Provided To the Dismissed Employee

The dismissed employee is legally entitled to various forms of compensation. Whether or not the employee is entitled to receiving her or his final paycheck is dictated by state law (McCulloch, 1984). For instance, in Connecticut, if an employer dismisses an employee, the employer should issue him or her with the final paycheck by the subsequent business day. A dismissed employee is entitled to severance compensation if it is provided for in the employment contract between the employee and her and his or her employer (Bliss & Thornton, 2006).

The compensation may entail continuous payments for a stipulated period, health insurance, and specified outplacement program services. Notably, the FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) does not obligate employers to give the employees they terminate the compensation (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). In some cases, the employees get unemployment compensation as an alternate to some of the income they lose before landing new employment.

How Employee Layoffs Affect Companies

The laying off of an employee may impact on a company in varied ways. First, it may affect the company’s bottom via increased expenditure. When a company lays an employee off, it typically spends around 50% of the employee’s yearly salary to recruit another person to fill the vacant position. The company incurs various costs related to recruitment of the replacement, advertising, and training. Before a replacement is gotten, the leaving employee’s duties are usually handled as overtime tasks by the other employees; occasioning extra salary expenses (CCH Australia, 2009). In some cases, an employee who feels that the being laid off is unlawful may make the company incur legal expenditures in defending itself against a suit filed against it by the employee.

Second, laying an employee off may reduce the morale, hence productivity, of the remaining employees. There is a high likelihood that the leaving employee may communicate his or her frustrations with the company to the other employees, dimming their morale and productivity (Bliss & Thornton, 2006). Third, laying an employee off may harm the company’s credibility as an employer. The leaving employee may project the company as an untrustworthy or insensitive employer to others.

Assignment Instructions

Imagine that you are an office manager and you have been tasked with the job of coordinating and heading the dismissal meeting for an employee layoff.
Write a six to eight (6-8) page paper in which you:

Propose three (3) ways that a manager can cope with any negative emotions that may accompany an employee layoff.
Describe a step-by-step process of conducting the dismissal meeting.
Determine the compensation that the fictitious company may provide to the separated employee.
Using Microsoft Word or an equivalent such as OpenOffice, create a chart that depicts the timeline of the disbursement of the compensation.
Predict three (3) ways that this layoff may affect the company.
Use at least three (3) quality academic resources in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and other Websites do not qualify as academic resources.

You can order a unique answer to this assignment at an affordable price.

Get Your Custom Paper From Professional Writers. 100% Plagiarism Free, No AI Generated Content and Good Grade Guarantee. We Have Experts In All Subjects.

Place Your Order Now