Firing an employee, even an ineffective one, is not an easy task for anyone and management usually do not organise themselves sufficiently to prepare for this dreaded task.

Most of my clients state that their major concerns are not only going through the sometimes loathsome firing process, but they are also extremely apprehensive towards the procedural involvement of re-hiring and profoundly saddened by their limited choice for suitable replacements.

Sometimes these fears and concerns leads employers to keep mediocre staff for greater lengths of time, hoping against hope that the employee will show some sort of satisfactory job performance improvement. These are lame excuses, and in my honest opinion, sometimes have a tremendous traumatic impact on the other members of staff.

Usually, I will say to a client that even a weak job performance can be improved when the employee fully understands and agrees to the following: If the employee shows that they understand what the problems are, are willing to make a sincere and earnest effort to improve and also, appreciate the chance given to them to work on improving their job performance.

No healthy employer or employee takes firing lightly. It is a horrid task that comes with the managerial job description. But if you genuinely have an employee who shows no inclination of wanting to improve that employee needs to be terminated and the sooner the better.

That may be blunt and harsh, but if you do not want to pull down the morale of other staff members, you need to make the decision and carry it out as soon as all the steps including looking into the legal ramifications are followed (make sure all the T's are crossed or your stress headaches won't be able to disappear with your normal dose of three ibuprofens).

A colleague one day stopped and out of the blue asked "please do an article on how to fire a bad employee, because it is not easy'' and this is true for all who have come face to face with the fact that termination was the only alternative.

Employers need to be organised for this task, so after all the preparatory steps are taken, the next step is to prepare for the inevitable termination meeting.

If you are not sure what the legal ramifications are, consult Government Employment Services and to be absolutely sure you are within your legal rights, you may also consider legal counsel. Legal consultation may initially be costly, but could later save a bundle and avoid the stress of a drawn out legal battle and more ibuprofens.

In the past, it was customary to fire employees on a Friday afternoon. The norm is any day of the week but it is best to do it in the mornings, giving the employee the option to leave early. In that way, the employee can not only be paid for the day's work, but will avoid embarrassment.

These are some additional pre-planning things to be done before your meeting: Role-play with others to make sure you are not giving the employee the wrong message and you are portraying clear factual statements in the delivery of your message. Plan carefully what you are going to say.

Get to the point. Point out the raw reasons for termination. Be polite, calm and kind, but do not point out any performance aspects that can be misconstrued. And above all make sure there is an organised history and documented facts to justify the reasons for the termination.

Answer honestly all the questions the employee may ask. The employee, even though being terminated, still needs to be treated with dignity and proper decorum. Don't lose your cool or else you may be opening up the meeting to harsh personal attacks. If you need to prepare a termination resolution, check out the following web sites at www.mycorporation.com/resolutions/terem p.htm.

As a matter of fact, this is an extremely good site to bookmark for future references.

Cindy Swan is a Professional Organiser with over 20 years of office administrative managerial experience and a member of the National Association of Professional Organisers. Her column appears in the business section on the The Royal Gazette every second Monday.