Operators: Anybody Ever Fired a Mentally Unstable Employee?

March 19, 2020

by a searcher from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill - Kenan-Flagler Business School in Austin, TX, USA

How did you handle it? What precautions or steps did you take?

Scenario: Small company with 10 employees.

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Reply by a professional
from Northwestern University in Southborough, MA, USA

Careful calling anyone mentally unstable or anything similar. Often these are protected classes and need to be cared for rather than terminated. I presume you are not an expert on mental stability, but you have some experience seeing that they are not achieving the objectives you’re setting for them. I’d focus on the latter as much as possible. Of course, employment attorneys are very important to keep close in situations involving terminations, and if you can sleep well terminating this employee and feel they are better served on unemployment or at another firm, then follow the rules, the law, pay them, see about getting them to sign a release, and then move on with your business and try not to hire someone similar in the future. Good luck!

Reply by an intermediary
from Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, NC, USA

Agree with all of the above: get all your documentation together, have someone with you, give them respect and dignity (don't tell them this is harder on you then on them, or that this will turn out to be good for them). Then -- do it Friday at the end of the day, so everyone else is cleared out and will be gone for the weekend, meet in a conference room or someplace private, then escort them to their desk to clean their stuff out (have boxes ready for them), then escort them out. If they have card access, delete it, if they have a key get the key back but also change the locks. If very concerned, have security (previously have used local security company and/or off duty police officers), or do it remotely via phone.

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