Behavior improvement: a two-track program for the correction of employee problems

In the best of all possible working worlds no one would ever have to be involuntarily terminated from employment. Whether a punitive discharge for a severe violation of a word rule, or a gentle dismissal for failure to meet job standards, termination is one of the most difficult tasks a supervisor ever has to perform. However, it is the effect on the employee that should dominate the supervisor's thoughts and actions, not the personal uneasiness with which the supervisor greets the task. It is because of the impact on the employee that the supervisor has a responsibility to do everything reasonably possible to ensure the employee's success before resorting to dismissal or discharge. Adopting this sort of caring attitude toward employees is not easy; most of our management role models of past years were raised on authoritarianism. As a result there is in many supervisors a tendency to simply weed out the troublesome employee and start again with someone new. However, any supervisor can fire, but it is the exceptional supervisor who can salvage an employee and turn a source of problems into an effective producer.