University of Kwazulu-Natal

How To Fire An Employee Without Hurting Your Company Culture

Bonisiwe Shabane
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how to fire an employee without hurting your company culture

If you’re looking for tips on how to fire an employee, you’ve come to the right place. Needing to fire an employee usually happens because of a fault on the employee’s part. Compare this to layoffs which happen because a company is downsizing. Firing is challenging for everyone involved. If you navigate it successfully, your company’s future, productivity, and team dynamics can come out unscathed. Navigate it poorly and you could find that your company culture suffers, your productivity declines, and employees start to leave or quiet quit.

Firing is so common that 40% of Americans have been fired from a job. Firing an employee is a sensitive task that requires careful handling. It's crucial to communicate clearly, provide specific reasons for termination, and ensure legal compliance. A well-executed termination process can minimize negative impacts on the individual and the organization, and maintain a healthy workplace environment. An experienced recruiter and HR professional who has transferred her expertise to insightful content to support others in HR. When you’re in a new relationship, you’re filled with enthusiasm, making plans for your future together.

You certainly don’t think about the moment you’ll break up. Likewise, when you hire an employee, you’re excited to start working with them; you don’t think you might fire them one day. Yet, it could happen. And when it does happen, you want to make sure you end things on good terms. Surely, no one likes breakups, but sometimes it’s exactly what you need to do – so that you keep your business productive and your workplace healthy. Still, you probably dread that moment when you’ll say to your soon-to-be ex-employee: ‘You’re fired’; even when you know that this is what needs to be done.

But you also don’t want to fall into the trap of getting it over with as soon as possible. A poorly prepared and poorly executed layoff could cause you even more troubles. And in case of large-scale layoffs, problems could escalate quickly. Firing someone is never easy, but handling it with empathy and professionalism can protect your business and support your team. Stay updated on more business management tips—sign up for the Jobber Newsletter. Join here.

Originally published in August 2024. Last updated on September 23, 2025. In an ideal world, every hire you make is perfect, and you always have enough work to go around. Unfortunately, if you’re in business long enough, chances are, you’ll have to let a staff member go eventually, either due to customer complaints, no-shows, or an empty schedule. What matters most in these situations is handling employee terminations with professionalism and respect. Public Speaking Tips for Leaders: Transform Your Presentation Skills Into Strategic Advantage

How to Have Career Development Conversations That Actually Work Conversational Hypnosis: The Language Patterns That Influence Without Pressure Firing an employee is often viewed as a necessary but daunting task for leaders, fraught with emotional and ethical complexity. In 2025, more than ever, businesses are emphasizing a people-first approach, making the process of letting someone go a critical test of leadership skill and organizational culture. The challenge lies not only in handling the termination itself but in preserving the fragile ecosystem of team morale and trust afterward. Companies like Google, Zappos, and Slack have elevated employee wellbeing to central company values, understanding that how exits are managed reflects far beyond the individual.

Harvard Business Review frequently highlights that the manner of termination influences long-term team cohesion and company reputation as much as any strategic decision. Leaders must be clear, humane, and transparent to maintain respect for the person departing and reassurance among those who remain. This article explores practical strategies to fire someone responsibly, preserving dignity, and in turn, sustaining motivation, commitment, and a positive work environment for the entire team. One of the paramount errors leaders make when firing an employee is allowing the action to come as a surprise. According to Gallup’s workplace analytics, employees who receive regular and honest feedback report significantly lower job insecurity and higher engagement levels. The first cardinal rule is ensuring that an individual underperforming is never blindsided by termination.

This requires a foundation of consistent communication where expectations, shortcomings, and remedial steps are clearly articulated well in advance. For example, at Apple, managers are trained to have ongoing performance dialogues long before considering termination. When performance dips, the approach is direct yet supportive, minimizing shock waves when parts of the team ultimately hear about a separation. To complement this approach, tools like Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs) are vital. However, a PIP must be much more than a bureaucratic hurdle—when sincerely designed, it serves as a lifeline that outlines the route to success and lets employees know exactly how they can regain their... Failure to do so not only hurts the employee but risks making the termination appear punitive or arbitrary to others.

Ultimately, transparency in firing safeguards morale by demonstrating leadership fairness and respect, crucial principles echoed by leadership experts like Brene Brown. It prevents the toxic “Am I next?” culture that can cripple productivity and engagement. Firing an employee is one of the hardest parts of management, but it is also one of the most important to do correctly. Research shows that 65% of employees who were let go felt their manager handled it poorly, while many supervisors admit they felt guilt after the process. This shows that many organizations struggle with how to fire someone in a professional and respectful way. The cost of mishandling an employee termination can be very high, but knowing how to fire someone properly can help employers minimize risks, maintain the employee’s dignity, and protect workplace morale.

Here are practical steps on how to fire someone professionally, including sample scripts to guide the conversation, valid reasons for termination, and the key laws employers need to follow. Before firing an employee, you need to make sure the reason is valid and well-documented. Firing someone without proper cause can lead to legal issues or claims of unfair treatment. Incompetence, such as low productivity or poor quality of work Access to 15 certificate programs, courses and all future releases AIHR Boot Camps are intensive HR training programs designed to rapidly upskill small cohorts, blending self-paced, specialized content with instructor-led, practical sessions, all guided by a program manager to ensure progress and impact.

It can cost up to $100,000 in legal disputes if you get this essential HR practice wrong. Knowing how to fire an employee legally can help your organization avoid costly mistakes. And give you the confidence to navigate the difficult process of terminating an employee. There is one task that can challenge even the most experienced HR professional: how to fire an employee in a professional and compassionate way. It requires advanced skills in communication, emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, and crisis management, as well as knowledge of employment laws and regulations. HR professionals not only have to manage the challenging aspects of terminating an employee but may also need to support managers.

Around 71% report feeling uncomfortable with the termination process. “You are the weakest link — goodbye” isn’t the way to go. Whether an employee is underperforming, behaving disruptively or simply a bad cultural fit, it’s still a difficult task to terminate their employment. You will be drastically changing their lives and undoubtedly causing them some stress — yet it’s a necessary part of the business if you want to build and maintain a great, engaged team. No matter how you look at it, firing an employee will be awkward and uncomfortable, but there are a few steps you can take to make it a little less painful for everyone involved. You will also want to protect your legal and financial interests during this process.

Our step-by-step guide will tell you how! There are many reasons you might decide to terminate a worker’s employment, which include (but are not limited to): If you’re a leader, there are few things that can ruin your day more than needing to fire an employee. It’s just plain hard to do, even when you know it’s the right decision. Firing employees isn’t personal—it’s business. And yet, many managers avoid it altogether, which ultimately disrupts the team and the business.

Terminations can go wrong in a myriad of ways: the employee is surprised, the offboarding process isn’t in place, they’re concerned about their final paycheck, necessary forms and documents are missing, key folks in... This is why planning a respectful and efficient employee termination meeting is essential. In this post, you’ll find a simple rubric on how to do employee terminations well—plus a sample script to guide the conversation. We hope this makes terminations a little less painful and helps you lean into the hard stuff with more ease. Now, let’s take a closer look at the moments that matter, starting with how to decide if termination is the right step. You don’t have to face terminations alone.

Explore how Reboot Coaching can help you build robust feedback systems that make difficult conversations clearer and more compassionate.

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Originally Published In August 2024. Last Updated On September 23,

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