Armchair Lawyers Part 2: Sacking a new staff member

At 2 months your safest bet is not to give him a specific reason in case this can be used against you.

@all the dudes here moaning that he is getting sacked before Christmas... no one owes you a job, you have to earn it, even if it's low paid.
 
Fairly sure the answer is no said:
just a quick one.

In our contract for this staff member we have them on a 6 month trial. it states in that time we can let them go should it not work out. It's not working out for various reasons, they're to blame, we're to blame it doesn't matter, what does matter is we've given them the opportunity and unfortunately in this situation it's not worked out as we'd both hoped.

i'm going to have a final meeting with them about this, but wanted to double check from people on here who might know better.

the person has been employed now since September, so not very long and still within the trial period. If we say it's not worked out and would like them to leave, do we need to provide a good, provable reason to let them go without it coming back to bite us should they turn nasty? the contract says we can let them go in that time without reason, but want to check that is actually the case by the law that we're allowed to actually do that.

i'd be looking to have them finish over the Christmas period due to how we break over that time it would make most sense for all, and allow plenty time for both to find new work.

is only menial basic minimum wage skill less work.
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Nope i've sacked tons of staff within their 6 months trial period.. just tell them that they have failed their probation period.. You don't have to explain why, just say that they failed.. if you give any reason you leave yourself open.
 
This must be some mom n pop operation, as there is no way you've earned any sort of senior position within a business on your own accord.

Lackadaisical should be the OP's new username.
 
swillsy said:
At 2 months your safest bet is not to give him a specific reason in case this can be used against you.

@All the dudes here moaning that he is getting sacked before Christmas... no one owes you a job, you have to earn it, even if it's low paid.
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thanks for the advice to you and all the others who gave feedback.

terley said:
if you give any reason you leave yourself open.
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wise words. thanks
 
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FurryLemon said:
This must be some mom n pop operation, as there is no way you've earned any sort of senior position within a business on your own accord.

Lackadaisical should be the OP's new username.
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if there's one thing that trump winning presidency has taught the world, it's that anyone can do anything they without having qualifications in every single espect possible with many years experience. you don't have to be super knowledgeable about all and every thing and a master advertiser, master employer, master team manager, master accountant, master marketeer etc to run your own business. it's ok to go into it and learn on the way. maybe in your rules that's not allowed, but thankfully very very very phew people think like that.
 
HAz said:
Sacking over Christmas how heartless!
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it's that or movember. both a terrible time clearly. i could wait until january but then that's the new year and not a good way to start the year, then feb is valentines month so can't do it then. march brings us to easter and april is my birthday so can't be dealing with the hiring process while i'm partying on my luxury yacht in the Bahamas as i'm such a greedy business man that keeps all the money. what is a man to do
 
Did you provide them with feedback on how to improve?

If the contract says probationary period then it is just that. It is bad form if it was a temp-perm position and you didn't have meetings with them to discuss what was needed from them for the role.

If you did and they didn't change - get shot.
 
helpimcrap said:
Did you provide them with feedback on how to improve?

If the contract says probationary period then it is just that. It is bad form if it was a temp-perm position and you didn't have meetings with them to discuss what was needed from them for the role.

If you did and they didn't change - get shot.
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i did of course, though I didn't teach them not to hang up the phone mid conversation but i thought that goes without saying.
 
1. It's a business not a charity.
2. Get rid of the useless deadwood. People who can't work on their own initiative when the boss is not around are of no use to your business.
3. Be vague, simply you have a failed your probation period is sufficient. To let them hang around after the meeting. Have them packing on their way and pay whatever they're due without them coming into work again.

Keep in mind the majority of the people here are employees and only ever see one angle inside a business. Most can't appreciate all the other headaches that come under running a business.
 
pepsilol said:
1. It's a business not a charity.
2. Get rid of the useless deadwood. People who can't work on their own initiative when the boss is not around are of no use to your business.
3. Be vague, simply you have a failed your probation period is sufficient. To let them hang around after the meeting. Have them packing on their way and pay whatever they're due without them coming into work again.
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Ive got to agree with this..

A few years back I was running a small garage and I was in your position.
I had an employee doing a probationary period.

when he was in the workshop he was a grafter granted you had to point him in the right direction a few times on some jobs ( I think he lacked the experience )

He would turn up late 3 out of 5 days was always the first to leave though.. My main problem was you could send him out of the workshop on an errand which should have taken maybe an hour tops but it would take him 3... ( I later found out he was either in the bookies or had went home for a quickie )

I did speak to him regarding this on a few occasions and he promised he would improve.. it never happened.

When I did give him his 2 week notice he tried to cause problems for us so his 2 weeks ended within 3 days.

The ironic thing was I ended out with his younger brother working for me and he was one of the best employees I could have asked for..
 
b0redj0rd said:
https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18677606

Sounds like a lovely place to work.
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Fairly sure the answer is no said:
i have a new employee who when working with me in the office gets loads done, but the days i'm out of the office it takes 6 hours to do what i consider 1 hour work. recent search history comes up on my phone and it shows personal searches only so i'm sure it's a case of do one small task, take 30 minutes to do own thing, and then do another small task, to then take another 30 minutes doing own thing.

as it's family i'm not too worried about the issues of secretly recording the activity. any recommendations for what i can use? i need it so this person isn't aware of the recording.
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LOL...
 
pepsilol said:
1. It's a business not a charity.
2. Get rid of the useless deadwood. People who can't work on their own initiative when the boss is not around are of no use to your business.
3. Be vague, simply you have a failed your probation period is sufficient. To let them hang around after the meeting. Have them packing on their way and pay whatever they're due without them coming into work again.

Keep in mind the majority of the people here are employees and only ever see one angle inside a business. Most can't appreciate all the other headaches that come under running a business.
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I will also entirely agree with this, point 3 especially. Its rarely a good idea to let people work a notice and much better to pay it and let them go straight away.
 
This thread is a pretty risky start to dismissing someone, i suggest that before your next thread post on 'how to employer', you remove certain details from your profile.
 
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pepsilol said:
1. It's a business not a charity.
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Yeah, because business owners are always fair and ethical with their employees. Let me counter this with a "they are people, not slaves". There seems to be a lot of business owners who actually feel they can treat people like dirt because they pay them minimum wage.

pepsilol said:
2. Get rid of the useless deadwood. People who can't work on their own initiative when the boss is not around are of no use to your business.
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This I agree with but that is of course assuming this is the reason they are not working out. If it's because they refused to work an extra shift at short notice, or something not covered in their JD, then they are within their rights.

pepsilol said:
3. Be vague, simply you have a failed your probation period is sufficient. To let them hang around after the meeting. Have them packing on their way and pay whatever they're due without them coming into work again.
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Agreed. If you have to let someone go (I have done so in the past a few times) then it's best to pay them for the rest of the week and get them to leave.

pepsilol said:
Keep in mind the majority of the people here are employees and only ever see one angle inside a business. Most can't appreciate all the other headaches that come under running a business.
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And a lot of business owners fail to grasp that unreasonable demands, or forcing horrible working contracts/conditions on a workforce are illegal and unethical.

Look at it this way, you contract someone to do work and you pay them for it. They do what they are paid to do in their contract and nothing more. Failure for either party to honour these contractual obligations can come from one or both parties.
 
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