ADA

JudyBeach

We are preparing to terminate an employee due to poor job performance. He has been written up and warned twice about his poor performance. He has made a statement in the past that he has been depressed and is going to see a doctor about it. We feel that he will object to his termination saying it was his depression that caused his poor performance.

What do we need to be prepared to do?

stilldazed

Follow your policy on progressive discipline, take the next appropriate step per policy or per previously communicated, and do not mention the medical issue during the process. If the employee brings up the subject, offer the employee the opportunity to provide medical certification as per FMLA (hopefully you are consistent with that request in all absence situations) and offer the opportunity to review your decision once the certification is provided.

A warning--you are terminating for poor job performance. FMLA is for absences. One is not really related to the other. If your employee is trying to claim illness as an excuse for poor job performance, he is mixing apples & oranges. Work to keep the two separate. FMLA does not cover poor job performance.

Best wishes.

marc

I am not seeing FML in the OP's statement. ADA was the issue in question.

That said, it is up to the EE to advance any ADA issue. As stilldazed said, do NOT bring it up.

If this concept is advanced, I would provide a job description to the EE and have the EE take it to his/her medical provider to determine what sort of accomodation could be made. It is up to the EE (and his/her service provider) to suggest accomodations. Once that step is done, then the ER can determine if any of the accomodations are both reasonable and do-able.

I don't think there are lots of accomodations that will work for you that allow for poor performance as an accomodation.

SMace

Whoa horsey. I wouldn't even discuss accomodation, ADA, etc. Even if they are qualified as disabled if they can't do they job, they get discipline. If you have been consistent about your level of expectation, I wouldn't give it another thought. Term 'em

In these situations we have referred and allowed people to use our EAP free of charge. Terminating them is not going to cure their depression and I would hate to send them off the deep end.

JudyBeach

Thank you all for your input. It appears we are ok to term since we have plenty of documentation.

I am new at HR and have another question/questions:

Is there a better day of the week to term? IS there a better time of day to term?

I look forward to your thoughts in this matter.

Judy

marc

You will likely find lots of different opinions regarding when to terminate.

In my opinion, it is best to do it immediately after you have made the final decision. Give payroll an hour or so to get the final check ready and then pull the trigger.

HRVolley

Judy-I hope you are enjoying your new HR responsibilities! I think you will find that there is no good time or day to term. I have tried them all and have found that it is best to term as soon as you have made the decision. Believe it or not, I have received a few "thank you's", for letting them know as soon as possible.
Good luck.

ACU Frank

You could try the Radio Shack approach. :P

Dutch2

the ole "You've got mail" method of term...