Written Warning then Termination

Sue2

We have a 4 year degreed accountant whose recent performance evals have been substandard. Additionally, she was given a written warning in September 2006 for workmanship and productivity not up to required standard. The written warning included a statement of "any future violation will result in termination of employment." I've just been told that we again have productivity and workmanship problems. Do you see any problem with the last warning being seven months ago? With the wording on the written warning I think we should terminate the employee. We have a great workforce and have very few terms.
PS Employee is white female under 40.
Thanks for your input!

aliciac

I don't see that there would be any problems assuming the performance issues have been well documented, and it sounds like they have. Good luck.

HRQ

Has her performance improved or at least been satisfactory for the past seven months?

I suspect there have been other issues since the 9/06 warning that have been ignored, and now the supervisor has gotten fed up again and wants to be done with her.

Nobody is mistake-free. Ignoring the little violations for the past 7 months (assuming that's the case) implies to the employee that those little things are OK, it's the bigger issues you were concerned about.

Sounds cynical, I know, but I see this all the time.

If it's bigger issues (messing up financial statements, double paying routine recurring invoices and failing to catch her own errors, failing to reconcile bank accounts, etc.) that have resurfaced and she clearly knew had to be maintained, then I feel differently.

Paul in Cannon Beach

Short answer: I think you can terminate.

Long Answer: Was the first writtend warning SPECIFIC as to what problems needed to be addressed? Workmanship and productivity is fairly vague.

Also, did the employee make any explanation for the dip in performance?

Firing an employee (in my opinion) should be a last resort. Its a tramautic act that can have a positive and negative effect on the rest of the team.

Personally, I would take that extra step or two to make sure the employee was given very specific feedback, an opportunity to improve, and regular updates on whether she was making progress or not.

Only when its clear (in my opinion) that no positive improvement is possible would I suggest you end the employment relationship.

Whether that takes one step or several is really difficult to say without knowing the specifics of the situation, your culture, and past precedents.

Sue2

HRQ, I suspect you are correct in saying there have probably been little violations for the past 7 months. The supervisor states that with any error he has spoken with the employee. Employee will improve for a while and then it's downhill again.

The written warning in September was for not meeting deadlines for fixed asset work (fiscal year end books could not be closed in a timely manner), final schedules did not balance when turned in, maintenance projects had not been capitalized/expensed, all asset deletions were not accounted for, the depreciation expense listing had negative depreciation amounts. Now she has posted auction check to Capital project statement rather than operating funds, keying JV with wrong year, setting up account number with wrong balance sheet code, keying budget change incorrectly with the same project number as a debit and a credit, preparing payroll tax form 941 incorrectly (IRS notified us of error.).

Thanks for the input!

Paul in Cannon Beach

That all sounds pretty specific and fairly serious.

Did the employee offer any reason for failing to achieve these goals?

So, have you decided what you will do?