Termination of employment: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 14:45, 13 April 2006

Revision as of 15:10, 13 April 2006

Line 5:

An individual can face '''termination of employment''', or job loss, for one of many reasons.

The most drastic termination of [[employment]] is involuntary termination, in its most severe form known as "firing", "sacking", or "being cannedsacking". A less severe form is to be [[downsizingLayoff|laid off]] or "downsized"made redundant, which is usually not strictly related to personal performance but [[economy|economic]] cycles or the company's need to restructure itself.

In a [[postmodern]] [[risk economy]], such as that inof the [[United States]], a large proportion of workers will be laid off at some time in their life, and often not for reasons related to performance or ethics.

Firing an employee is expensive and risky in that firings require extensive [[documentation]] (in the event of a wrongful-termination [[lawsuit]]), and because fired employees may sue their former employers, disclose [[trade secret]]s to competitors, or expose illegal practices. Finally, in the [[United States]], [[unemployment benefits]] are financed by companies, and a firm's unemployment costs increase with each worker laid off or fired. Depending on the circumstances and company policy, a fired employee may or may not be entitled to such things as a [[severance package]] and [[unemployment benefits]].

Line 25:

In some cases, an employee's off-the-job behavior could result in his losing his/her job (e.g., a drunk driving arrest, especially if the employee's principal responsibilities require driving). At some businesses, a security officer may escort a "fired" employee from the workplace to the parking lot upon his/her dismissal.

Synonyms for being "fired" include '''cannedsacked''', '''sackedreleased''', '''releaseddischarged''', and '''dischargeddismissed''', and coloquially '''axedcanned''', andor '''dismissedaxed'''. One [[euphemism]] for being terminated is being '''let go'''.

====Effects of "getting fired"termination====

Rarely is a decision to fire an employee arrived at lightly, or is it as dramatic as portrayed on television (such as with the [[World Wrestling Entertainment|WWE]], when [[Vince McMahon]] "fires" an employee as part of a [[angle (professional wrestling)|storyline]]) or in the movies.

Line 39:

===Discriminatory and retalitory termination===

In some cases, the firing of an employee is a discriminatory act. Although an employer may often claim the dismissal was for "[[just cause]]," these discriminatory acts are often because of the employee's physical or mental disability;, or perhaps his/her age, race, gender, HIV status or sexual orientation. Other unjust firings may result from a workplace manager or supervisor wanting to retaliate against an employee. Often, this is because the worker reported wrongdoing (often, but not always [[sexual harassment]] or other misconduct) on the part of the supervisor. Such terminations are usually illegal. Many successful lawsuits have resulted from discriminatory or retalitory termination.

Other unjust firings may result from a workplace manager or supervisor wanting to retaliate against an employee. Often, this is because the worker reported wrongdoing (often, but not always [[sexual harassment]] or other misconduct) on the part of the supervisor.

It is important to note such acts are in violation of federal law, and in many cases state law as well. Many successful lawsuits have resulted from discriminatory or retalitory termination.

Discriminatory or retalitory termination by a supervisor can take the form of administrative process. In this form the rules of the instituton are used as the basis for termination. For example, if a place of employment has a rule that prohibits personal phone calls, receiving or making personal calls can be the grounds for termination even though it may be a common practice within the organzation.

Line 52 ⟶ 48:

To avoid this, and to allow the dismissed employee to "save face" in a more "graceful" exit, the employer will often ask the employee to resign "voluntarily" from his or her position. If the employee chooses not to resign, the processes necessary to fire him or her will be pursued, and the employee will usually be fired. The resignation thus makes it unclear whether the resignation was forced or voluntary, and this opaqueness benefits both parties; for instance, the "fired" employee is more easily able to seek new employment in his/her given field.

High-profile individuals, when forced to resign from a job, will often claim that they resigned over "creative differences" or "to spend more time with mytheir family". However, even these reasons can create rumors.

===Changes of conditions===

Firms that wish for an employee to exit onof his or her own accord, but do not wish to pursue firing or forced resignation, may degrade the employee's working conditions, hoping that he or she will leave "voluntarily". The employee may be moved to a different geographical ___location, assigned to an undesirable [[shift work|shift]], given too few hours if part time, [[demotion|demoted]] (or relegated to a menial [[task]]), or assigned to work in uncomfortable conditions. Other forms of [[manipulation]] may be used, such as being unfairly hostile to the employee, and punishing him or her for things that are deliberately overlooked with other employees.

Such tactics may amount to [[constructive dismissal]], which is illegal in some jurisdictions.

===Layoffs and furloughs===

Finally, termination of employment can happen as a result of [[downsizing|layoffslayoff]]s, also known as "downsizing", "reduction in force", or "redundancy", which are not firings. A laid-off employee's job is terminated and not re-filled, because the company wishes to reduce its size or operations, not for performance-related reasons. In rare cases, laid-off employees are re-hired by their respective companies, though by this time they have usually found new jobs.

If a company is in the process of either economic troubles and/or recent previous layoffs and they ask you to "cross-train" someone to fill in your duties "in case you are gone," chances are that a lay off process may proceed shortly.

See also: [[{{Wiktionary:furlough|Furlough]]}}

[[Category:Organizational studies and human resource management]]