Business Owner or Manager: Do you believe in progressive discipline before termination?

[Labonte18]

who showed an inability to do the job

I guess I missed that part when I originally replied..

If it's patently obvious that they can't do the work.. First off.. That's a massive failure on whoever did the hiring. That person should be accepting the majority of the blame for it. Then.. you look at how much time and effort would it take to train the person properly? You can't train someone who can't do basic math to be a structural engineer.

But.. If you hired a secretary and they just aren't getting your phone system.. Then.. That would point to giving more training.

[dijkstra]

It depends on the particular employee and situation. Like most things there is no "one size fits all" generic approach that is appropriate for every situation. If a particular employee turns out to be an obvious moron or slacker, why waste time and money prolonging the inevitable?

[nybbler]

Does progressive discipline actually work? Or is it just a way of putting off the inevitable in hopes the employee will quit first?

[fishbrains]

Originally Posted by nybbler

Does progressive discipline actually work? Or is it just a way of putting off the inevitable in hopes the employee will quit first?

It does work sometimes. I have several employees who have gone pretty far down the path and redeemed themselves. A couple eventually became outstanding employees, several became adequate, one or two were on and off disciplinary proceedings over a period of years, and a few others were fired.

In my experience, most people get it at the formal verbal warning stage.

Once it gets to written warnings my success rate is about 60%. I win more than I lose.

[mbradleyc]

It's not about discipline. It's corrective action. If you go to the time and expense of hiring someone, unless they do something that earns automatic termination, such as stealing, you want them to succeed and you give them every opportunity.

Training, teaching, nurturing even. You saw something in them to give them a chance. Some people don't always work out the way you expect, so you find a different way to help them succeed.

People are an investment. Some investments require work to pay off.

[luzianne]

I have trained and mentored people, but some just don't get it. No, I don't do progressive discipline. When it comes to the point that I realize they can't do the job, I let them go. And I've learned a lesson. There have been times in the past that I have given people a second chance, only to find out that my original decision was 100% correct and I shouldn't have second guessed myself. So now I make a decision and it's final.

[S.S. Lazio]

Depends. On some things it's a 3 strike; you're out deal.

On things like assault, no warning. See ya.

Drugs, friction with a manager, 1 and done.

[I'm Retired Now]

In my experience if you let a manager fire someone without some type of progressive discipline (or corrective action), they will abuse their power. They may not want to work with certain types of personalities, races, religions and backgrounds, even though they are great workers, and will quickly fire the person instead of giving them a chance. This causes morale issues and legal issues when someone from a protected class is fired without warning and now you are facing a lawsuit.

I remember a manager who fired an employee because she found out that the staff member had an abortion, and the manager was very pro life. She claimed the employee was not able to do her work up to standards, but the employee had nothing but good performance appraisals in the past. But as soon as she had an abortion, she suddenly became incompetent.

I think a couple of layer of management needs to buy into the decision to terminate for incompetence to verify it is not unfair and the person is really a lost cause.