Now if you are Donald Trump, you can say that and get away with it. As a business owner not only can you seldom say that but unless you terminate an employee in the right way, you could have a lot of problems.

One thing that most new business owners are not aware of is that, depending on the state laws, they can be assessed a higher rate on their unemployment insurance for every successful claim that is filed. If you hire seasonal workers, then the rules can be very different. Check with your state Unemployment or Workforce Development office to get the details for how your state assesses the rates, determines eligibility, and the rules for seasonal workers.

Termination with Cause

There are several situations in which you can terminate an employee immediately without counseling or any attempt to remediate the situation.

Before we look at those situations, it is essential that you have a policy in place, preferably in the employee manual, defining how you will treat any illegal activity. Will you immediately call police, allow them to resign, or give them another chance? How you handle the problem is your choice but you also have to consider the ramifications. If you allow a person to resign or give them a second chance, then you are showing other employees that they can commit crimes and you will do little to them. In fact, you may simply be allowing them to go out and commit a crime at another company. You must be prepared to hear excuses, justifications, and sob stories from an employee who has committed a crime to try to convince you not to call the police or to request prosecution. However, it is not your job to determine if they are telling the truth. You have to look at it from the perspective that the person has violated the law. You can choose to forgive them but to demonstrate your ethics, belief in the law, and integrity you should turn them in to authorities.

Whatever your choice, you absolutely must be consistent. If you are going to call police if someone steals $5000 then you must also call them if someone steals $5. You also must be consistent in that there are not different "considerations" for friends, relatives, rank in your organization or any other reason. Fairness, consistency, and following the laws must be included in any policy that you create.

Theft or embezzlement

It must be understood that in order to terminate an employee for theft or embezzlement not only must you have excellent proof of the crime but always file charges with the proper authorities. If authorities determine that there is insufficient proof or the employee is acquitted of the charges, then they may be able to collect unemployment or, in certain circumstances you can be required to give them back their job.

Embezzlement can be accomplished in many ways from altering the books, taking part of deposits, creating fake invoices, or many other accounting tricks. Protect yourself by keeping an eye on your books and having a yearly audit.

Theft of property or cash from the company can be hard to catch sometimes. In one company, the head of a small department submitted orders for office supplies to a secretary who was in charge of placing the orders for several departments and never paid attention to the orders. Only when invoices were checked in order to try to save money on office supplies was it discovered that he was ordering several black and color inkjet cartridges every two weeks. He only had a laser printer at his desk and was networked to a large color laser printer. When confronted he admitted that he was getting them for his home inkjet and to sell to friends and neighbors. He offered to make restitution but was told he could resign or the police would be called. He chose to resign.

In a small company it is easier to keep a close eye on what is going on but as your company grows, you will need to create oversight and review processes to be able to ensure that you and your company are not a victim of theft of money, material goods, intellectual property or anything of value.

Threats and Physical Violence

At one time or another almost everyone has said things like "I could kill you" or "I'll beat you to a pulp." We're not proud of that and are not serious. Unfortunately, there are those who threaten and mean it. Any threat must be taken seriously. If it appears that the threat was made in anger and frustration but with no intention of following through, then counseling sessions are in order. However, if the threat does appear serious then you must act immediately to protect others. Call the police and then let the person know that they are fired. There is no room for compromise on this issue. The safety of others is of paramount importance. If the person's paycheck is deposited directly to their bank account then there is no need for the person to return to the premises to pick it up. If they do not have direct deposit, then it would be best to mail their final paycheck. If you are concerned about the person's reaction to being arrested, ask the police or your attorney about getting a restraining order to keep them off the premises. Pack up any personal items and mail/FedEx/UPS or courier the items to their home. You do not want them to have any excuse to return to your site.

Physical violence demands immediate police intervention and firing on the spot. Follow the same procedures as above and make certain that the victim(s) receives prompt medical care and counseling if needed. You want to demonstrate to all other employees that you take their safety very seriously and that there is a zero tolerance policy towards physical violence and even the threat of violence.

Illegal Drugs and Alcohol

Providing that you have a strong illegal drug and alcohol policy, then if you find an employee having, selling, distributing, or using illegal drugs or alcohol on work premises or during working hours, you can have cause for termination. If the drugs are on the premises, then you must call the police.

If you suspect that an employee is on drugs or alcohol while at work, you must immediately take the employee or have a trusted subordinate take them to a clinic or drug testing site to have them tested. If they test positive and you have a drug policy that allows immediate termination, then you can fire them as soon as you get the positive results. If there was also an accident or injury to the employee or others, not only is it required that the employee be tested but may also need to be reported to other agencies such as OSHA, your Workmen's Compensation insurer, and any others as required by law.

If your drug and alcohol policy allow a second chance with mandatory enrollment in inpatient or outpatient rehabilitation programs, then termination can be put on hold until successful completion of the program and the employee continues to test negative in random tests.

Resume or Job Application

The discovery of any false information on a resume used as a job application or an actual job application is cause for immediate termination.

Termination

Every business owner at one time or another has an employee that is non-productive, disruptive, insubordinate, and/or has a really bad and negative attitude. As much as you might like to, simply terminating them can be very problematic. Even though the majority of states have "work at will" statutes meaning that there are no implied employment contracts, the reality is that you need to take certain steps to protect your interests and potentially change a bad employee into a good one.

The basic standard is that an employee is called in for a confidential meeting with you, the manager or direct supervisor, a representative of human resources or any combination of the above. A written report has been prepared identifying the problem(s) and the employee is informed of the problems and asked to comment on the report. A non-accusatory discussion should follow with questions being asked as to what the source of the problem might be and what can be done about it. If the employee is willing to try to change their behavior and the employer is willing to help if there is some accommodation that needs to be made then both parties need to sign the report with a notation as to the agreement and the time frame allowed to see improvement. A specific date should be set to revisit the situation. If the employee refuses to sign, then the company representatives should note that on the report and any accommodations the company was willing to make. The report must be placed in the employee's personnel record.

To provide maximum protection for your company this type of confidential meeting and counseling session should take place three times before the employee is terminated. It is not uncommon for a terminated employee to find a lawyer who will sue for wrongful termination. If you have documented at least 3 instances of a meeting and counseling the employee will almost never win. It is also proof that the employee was terminated appropriately and is not eligible for unemployment insurance benefits.

Common reasons for terminating an employee can include:

• Knowingly breaking an employer's rules,

• Unexcused absence or tardiness,

• Purposely damaging the employer's property,

• Refusal to obey employer instructions,

• Conduct that threatens the safety of others,

• Conviction and imprisonment for a serious crime,

• Breach of a duty owed to you as the employer, and

• Harassment and/or sexual harassment of others

Employees cannot be terminated for the following reasons:

• You arbitrarily (unreasonably) change the terms or conditions of the work,

• Safety violations at your work site,

• Harassment by others, and

• Domestic or family violence.

If you operate your company legally and ethically, you will never face the issue that you cannot terminate an employee for "whistle blowing." Technically, a whistle blower is only protected when they are an employee of federal, state, or local government. However, the term is generally now used to turn in any employer to the proper authorities for illegal activity, violation of the rules of any regulatory agency, or violating the rights of any employee through overt acts of discrimination. Most employees will not want to stick around once they have turned you in but if they do you must keep them employed. Just another good reason to act with integrity.

Layoffs

Layoffs can be an unfortunate part of being in business, particularly in this recession. Even in the best of times, layoffs can become necessary for a variety of reasons such as automation that requires fewer workers, outsourcing some jobs, loss of market or many other reasons. No matter what the reason, it is a hard time for everyone.

There are some steps you can take to try to keep layoffs to a minimum as well as your unemployment insurance payouts. The minute it looks like you might have to layoff workers, determine if there are any workers that you can actually terminate that are not very productive or problematic. Don't suddenly try to squeeze in 3 counseling sessions in a very short period of time because it will be obvious what is going on and you might still have to pay unemployment.

In order to maintain your level of integrity that you have shown to employees in the past, let them know as soon as possible that there may have to be layoffs. Ask them if they have any suggestions for avoiding that or reducing numbers. Some suggestions could include early retirement, job sharing, working fewer days, taking a salary cut, etc. If you are honest, then the employees may solve your problem for you particularly when the economy is bad. In some cases, employees may start job hunting and be able to find employment before the layoffs occur.

In any case, if you must have layoffs there are certain steps you should take to do it properly. We have all seen what often happens in large companies where the majority of the management people stay employed with all their bonuses and perks while the regular employees are laid off right and left. It makes everyone, except management, angry and disillusioned. Also don't make the strategic error of laying off a lot of customer service people. They are often the first to go in a layoff but excellent customer service may actually be what is keeping you in business. Remember it costs 5 to 10 times as much to get a new customer as it does to keep a customer.

Be very careful that in a layoff you do not single out the older workers who usually have higher salaries just to maximize savings. That could be considered age discrimination.

When the time comes, do the right thing and make those that are being laid off eligible for unemployment but do not give them any date to return. In many states, if there is a return to work date, the newly unemployed do not have to look for work after they are laid off. To help out, you can offer to write a letter of recommendation for each employee or to give a good reference over the phone unless your policy is only to verify employment when references are checked by a potential employer. Make no promises about rehiring if things improve because as your company changes to meet the new challenges, you may find that you need employees with different skills or knowledge.

EMPLOYEES - PRE-HIRE PLANNING, or why you still have to do homework!

When a small business hires employees there are a lot of things to consider.

Hiring a bad or poor quality employee has a much greater impact on a small business than on a larger one. So what do you do to try to keep from making a mistake?