If the written notice does not work, you need to lay off the person. Giving notice allows the worker time to steal confidential information, stir-up the remaining workers and commit sabotage. How your small business deals with this depends on its specific problems and its general business environment. 1) Inform the worker right away you have not found enough evidence to terminate for gross misconduct. After laying off employees, right away turn your attention to the emotional needs of the remaining workers.

Get an independent review of the firing decision. By spreading rumors that you are going to lay off a worker, you may find yourself with more of a muddy mess than when you began. Before you layoff anyone, you should determine the chance the jobholder will sue you. Also, if some outside reason causes the employee to resign, the unemployment commission would consider this an involuntary layoff. If you were the ex-worker's supervisor, you'll probably be your own "star witness." Since you have had the most dealings with the employee, you're the best individual to testify about his behavior. You are the final say in the business, so finding help may require being more creative. If you're a top level boss, have one of your senior managers or have an employment attorney review it. If he later files for unemployment, you can use this notification and his reason as evidence the company didn't force him to quit. In addition, when the firm downturns or merges, they suspect you'll lay them off. In other words, you don't want to decide the remedial action you'll take "in the heat of the moment." By thinking about these situations ahead of time, you can simply refer to your handbook and take the action necessary. If the lack of attendance or tardiness continues, you may run out of warnings or remedial actions cited in the jobholder guidebook.