b' Keep it short.The fired employee will likely want to knowAfter the Termination Meeting: why.Much like the child who is told he cant spend the night Do not make the employee do the walk of shame. Studiesat a friends house, he wants to know why so he can debateshow that a former employees desire to sue is somewhat you about why the reason you have is not good enough. related to how they felt about the termination. If you humiliate After all, the person is about to be unemployed. Dont taketheperson,theywillhaveastrongermotivationtoget the bait. Every word uttered in the meeting just clutters therevenge. As noted above, fire at the edge of business hours landscape in a future case. You want as few words spokenwhen there are fewer people around and allow the employee as possible to decrease the words for the employee to useto leave after the meeting to return later for their belongings, against you later. which you can box up, if they prefer. Beprofessionalandpolite.Theterminatedemployeeis Do not allow computer access. It never ceases to amaze megoing to make a decision about whether to sue or reporthow many people let the employee go back to their office your company for any violation he or she can think of toafter a termination. An angry employee might do damage.governmental agencies based on how he or she feels shortlyPrepare a memo. Each person who is in the meeting should after the separation. You need to avoid making the employeesitdownandprepareashortmemoaboutexactlywhat feel badly as much as possible. happened in the meeting. A lawsuit involving the meeting Presentanyseveranceandreleaseagreementyouvewill not come for months or a year. It will help a jury believe determined to offer. Put it in an envelope and hand it to theyour recitation of what happened if you can point to a memo employee. Invite them to read it after they leave and have aabout what transpired.chance to consider it. You dont want the employee arguing Final Pay. Deliver the final paycheck within 6 days afteryou forced them to sign it. If they are over 40, they have attermination. It is the law.least 21 days to consider it anyway. Clear any debts. Present any agreement you prepared tocollect any loans from the last paycheck and make payment arrangements beyond that. Dont offer the employee help finding another job. Doing so either means you think the former employee was not so bad at the job that they should be fired or that you are going to lie to someone to suggest he or she should be hired even though you fired them.22'