How to fire an employee

Your receptionist Sharon shows up late to work again. And when she shows up late, it throws your whole veterinary team off schedule. It's clear that you need to let Sharon go. So take a deep breath and follow these five tips from Mark Opperman, CVPM, a Veterinary Economics Editorial Advisory Board member. They'll help make the firing process go as smoothly as possible:

1. Make the decision to fire her and act on it. Don't procrastinate. Indecision is detrimental to you and your practice.

2. Document the employee's actions through a series of oral and written warnings. Even a spoken warning needs to be documented. Keep these documents under lock and key.

3. Create an atmosphere for communication. Make sure a third party is present during the warnings and the termination.

4. During your conversations with the employee, state your practice's position and the factual evidence. Use the broken record response when the excuses start flying.

5. Don't keep a discharged employee on the premises. Conduct termination meetings at the end of the day-except in those situations when you must terminate an employee on the spot-so you don't leave your team short-handed.