Case Studies

The Right Time to Terminate

Dr. H hired Maggie 2 years ago as a lead billing specialist. Maggie was amazing at her job, but had chronic attendance issues and didn’t get along with other employees. Other employees quit because of her.

Dr. H finally realized he had to terminate Maggie for the overall health of the practice. He delayed the termination meeting, waiting for a newly-hired billing person to be more up-to-speed.

While Dr. H was waiting for “the right time”, Maggie’s child was diagnosed with a protected medical condition, given the practice’s state and number of employees, and Maggie needed intermittent leave. 

Dr. H had to delay the termination, to avoid the appearance and risk of retaliation. During the delay, unfortunately, the new employee resigned due to Maggie’s attitude.

Why?

You’ve heard the classic phrase, “high slow, fire fast.” There is never a truly “right” time to terminate someone. In general if you have your documentation, your ducks in a row, then it’s best to take action immediately, even if it means being short-staffed for a bit. 

There have been numerous cases where a practice delays the inevitable, hoping for a more ideal time, and then the employee gets pregnant, reports an OSHA issue, injures themselves on the job and is now under a workers’ compensation claim, or something similar. And while yes it is possible to still terminate a person after one of these events, the likelihood of it leading to some sort of labor-claim is very high. 

Key takeaway: if you need to terminate someone, move quickly. Assess your documentation, reach out to an HR professional for a second opinion, and then move forward immediately with the termination. You might be short-staffed for a period of time, but this will be far better than suffering with the bad employee for more months, and certainly better than losing more good employees. 

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