EXAMPLE: Escalating Discipline For Overwhelming misbehavior. Here's an example of a medium-risk separation. Separating a jobholder for having a bad disposition can be a huge problem in the day-to-day company of any firm. For example, you might say the jobholder caused great problems with her or his attitude and then describe, in detail, how it affected the business. A supervisor of a friendly competitor says, "I understand you have been cleaning house recently. This obviously tells the jobholder that if their productivity does not significantly improve within 30 days, they will face dismissal. ANSWER TO PART B: "Yes." You have adequate documentation with your written warnings about her productivity problems, and you have given her 4 chances to upgrade including training. It also should inform the jobholder about his benefits.

If the bad behavior continues, the employee forces you to the next discipline step, the written notification. Anyone who has been in company for any time at all will tell you that sooner or later you are going to face the sticky problem of handling insubordinate employees. If this is the case, you can still work at avoiding a layoff by discussing the problem with the jobholder. Besides enforcing company policies, you must provide documentation of problem behavior. If it becomes a public matter or if the offending photo contains anything that identifies your small business, you're probably in the clear as well. Also, you may want an Human resources supervisor or an attorney to review it. But since most workforce, even the problem employees, fall into the former group, it's perhaps worthwhile to figure out how best to deal with them.