As a small business owner or Personnel manager, writing a dismissal notice may be one of the more difficult parts of your job. Although separating a jobholder is something I don't lose sleep over, I still have the same worries you do. If you ever have to write a termination letter, it helps to have prepared ahead of time. After writing your employee separation notice, you must then sit down with the jobholder and discuss the memorandum and any steps the worker should take to complete the lay off. A foolproof lay off notice is one of the most important documents of the layoff procedure. Step 2 in How to layoff Someone: Keep the worker Informed. In the past, I've had a supplier call me within an hour after firing an employee. Dealing with problem employees is perhaps the hardest part of running a firm. Instead, you should use the techniques from this chapter and those in the next one to be properly compassionate in the layoff meeting. A high risk lay off is where the jobholder is probably to sue and you have inadequate documentation. Essentially you can use this important tool to change the course of the company strategy.

Here the company assumes that some workers will retire soon. (Undoubtedly, when the company already has policies and methods about dismissals, these supersede the list below.) In addition, cutting back an employee's hours which, in turn, forces him to resign to find more hours is an involuntary termination. Go through the firing notification with emphasis on items in the dismissal package.