Have the jobholder sign the memorandum so there is a record that you did meet with the jobholder and presented the information detailed in the reprimand notice. If the worker carries out your instruction then that is the end of it. It is an intimidating action to do at first, since you're sending separated worker into unemployment. As I mention in the last section, a voluntary resignation makes the employee ineligible to get unemployment compensation. And, his supervisor has repeatedly warned him about his lackluster productivity over the past year. Finding a reason to sack the jobholder is the easy part, but you should be careful how you do it. And if you're a manager and not a owner, make sure you have your supervisor on board during the whole procedure. Frankly, you'll probably not conduct an exit interview, especially when you're a supervisor of a small or medium-sized business. If he later files for unemployment, you can use this letter and his reason as evidence the business didn't force him to quit. Is the termination justified given the employee's tenure with company, past performance history and recent evidence of performance problems?

In such cases you're not handling insubordinate employees; you're handling difficult situations. It's better to negotiate with the worker later (and sue when necessary) for the disputed money. For example, the Older Workforce Benefit Protection Act (OWBPA) covers the benefits you need to make personnel over age 40 aware of. If the original hiring supervisor goes ahead and fires the bad individual, it's hard for the jobholder to claim this manager laid off her because he held prejudice against her. (This gets the focus off the fired worker and on the work, where it should be.)