Seven Key Steps for Terminating a Potentially Violent Employee
Termination is difficult, for both the HR professional and especially so for the employee being terminated. But when the employee being terminated is one who HR believes may have a propensity towards violence or who has already exhibited violent tendencies, termination is doubly stressful. To address HR concerns about how to terminate an individual who may be violent, Dr. Dennis Davis provided SHRM National Conference attendees with seven steps to follow.
1. Remember that termination is not discipline. Discipline is an attempt to remediate inappropriate performance. At the termination stage, however, you're no longer teaching a lesson, you’re ending a relationship.
2. Create a psychological advantage for yourself. You set the day and time (early in the day and week are best); make sure other people are around; create a psychological distance using a table or desk; and provide yourself a physical exit route.
3. Be brief. If you can’t get through the termination itself in 15-20 minutes, you haven’t prepared carefully enough. People tend to get more upset rather than less as time passes. Also, make sure everything you communicate is documented in writing and given to the employee at the meeting.
4. Keep your feelings to yourself. Don't gloat; conversely, don't say how hard this is on you. Frankly, a termination meeting is not about you, it's about the employee.
5. Don’t elicit emotions from the employee; e.g., don't ask him how he feels. You don’t want to focus on feelings but on the employee thinking about getting on with the rest of his life. People typically cannot effectively think and feel at the same time.
6. Use your own actions to modify the employee's responses. So, no verbal one-upmanship, no escalation of the emotional level. Instead, use open body language (hands out, palms up). Whether or not to make eye contact is usually gender-based, so follow the lead of the person you are terminating. If she seeks eye contact, provide it; if he avoids a direct look, don’t force one. And do not touch the employee, not even in what you think is a reassuring gesture.
7. Engage the human mirroring effect. This works because humans don't like to stand out in a crowd. For example, if the employee raises his voice, lower your own, to a whisper if necessary. Lower your voice in octave, volume, and speed. Slow down and exaggerate your movements. Never try to "shhhhh" an angry employee.
Reprinted with permission. © CCH
<p>Seven Key Steps for Terminating a Potentially Violent Employee Termination is difficult, for both the HR professional and especially so for the employee being terminated. But when the employee being terminated is one who HR believes may have a propensity</p>