We can't say it strongly enough: even when firing a worker, you should make every possible attempt to maintain the employee's dignity.

A "prompted resignation" is a resignation that appears to be voluntary on the surface. However, the idea or motivation for the employee to resign came from somebody else, usually the person's boss.

Whether you want or need advance notice of resignations depends on the nature of your business. If you are in an industry where people commonly come and go, and where it's relatively easy to find good replacements, you may not care about advance notice. If you want exiting employees to train their own replacements, a two-week notice period may be a reasonable request.

You can't stop people from quitting on you. But you can:

Whenever you are involved in firing or laying off a worker, there is the possibility that the laid-off employee will take legal action against you. To avoid this threat, you can negotiate a severance agreement with the employee. As part of the agreement, the worker will sign a release stating that he or she gives up some or all rights to sue you.

If the federal Age Discrimination in Employment Act applies to you (generally, if you have 20 or more employees during 20 or more weeks in the year) and if the worker is more than 40 years old, there are special rules that apply. These rules are designed to make sure that the release was signed "knowingly and voluntarily."

When economic reasons demand that you eliminate an employee's job, either temporarily or permanently, you automatically have a sound business reason for the discharge. Few courts will question your judgment in this regard. But if you decide to lay off some but not all of your workers, you must be sure that your selection process does not discriminate on the basis of age, sex, or race, or violate some other public policy.

If you do ignore all the expert advice and fire someone impetuously, perhaps because you had an argument or you caught the worker in the act of stealing or damaging property, what should you do? The answer depends on the worker's previous history with your company.

Under employment-at-will laws that are in effect in all states except Montana, you have the "right" to discharge an employee at any time for any reason, or for no reason at all. At least, that's the theory. In reality, your right to fire is becoming more and more restricted because of the tremendous growth in federal and state laws that favor employees. What's more, these days workers who feel they have been unjustly discharged or forced to quit seem to be filing employment-related suits at the drop of a hat, and courts are increasingly taking the employee's side.

There are a number of steps you need to take before you fire somebody for insubordination, breaking a work rule or any other type of misconduct, or for simply performing poorly on the job. These steps include documenting the problem, using fair rules and procedures, and investigating the "last straw" incident thoroughly.

Not only can employers be sued for improperly firing employees, they also can be sued for failing to fire employees. This problem arises when an employer becomes aware or should have become aware that an employee may cause harm to others, yet fails to take any action to prevent the employee from in fact causing harm.

Let's assume an employer fires an employee who is about to close a sale that will entitle her to a substantial commission. Assume also that the firing violates no federal or state statute, public policy, or provision of an express or implied employment contract. Can the fired employee successfully sue for wrongful discharge if the employer's sole reason for firing her was to avoid having to pay the commission? In many states, the answer probably is no. Courts have generally been hesitant to expand the public policy or implied contract theory in wrongful discharge cases to reach every instance when an employer may have acted in bad faith in firing an employee.

Many states have their own versions of civil rights laws, and impose them on employers who are too small to be covered by the federal antidiscrimination laws. The state laws that govern the hiring process apply to firing and termination as well.

Numerous federal and state laws provide employees with certain rights, such as to be free from workplace discrimination or to refuse to take lie detector tests. Many of these laws specifically limit an employer's ability to fire employees merely for exercising or enjoying the rights granted.

You may be surprised to learn that a fired employee may be able to sue you for violating the terms of an employment contract that you didn't even know existed. As a matter of fact, employers in virtually every state have been forced to incur tremendous legal costs in defending and paying damage awards in connection with lawsuits brought under so-called "implied" employment contracts.

What's one of the easiest ways to find yourself defending a wrongful discharge lawsuit? Fire an employee under circumstances that violate a fair employment law. Numerous federal, state, and even local laws restrict an employer's right to fire an employee for discriminatory or retaliatory reasons.

The following table shows some of the federal fair employment laws that are of general application. Normally, the effect of these laws starts with the hiring process and continues through the termination of the employment relationship.

If you enter into a formal employment contract with an employee (or a union contract with a group of employees), you'll frequently specify in the contract the proposed length of the employment relationship and the reasons for which either party can end the relationship. In other words, the contract's terms will generally govern your ability to fire the employee, as well as the employee's ability to quit. If either party attempts to terminate the relationship in violation of those terms, a potential breach of contract claim arises.

As careful as you may be to select the best employees available and to manage them well, at some point it's likely that you'll have to fire somebody. For most business owners and managers, this is definitely not a job to look forward to. Making it worse are the facts that there is a growing body of law that limits your right to fire workers, and that more and more workers seem to be filing (and winning) lawsuits against their former employers.

You can use the following steps as a guide to imposing an oral or written warning or suspension on the employee:

After you've investigated the situations and dealt with the employee, you need to document the entire process starting with the complaint or incident and ending with the final resolution or action taken.

There are some things that can stand in the way of effective feedback. Some employment atmospheres are not open, and lack of candor inhibits true communication, especially about difficult issues. Remember, too, that criticism hurts. Avoid these pitfalls to make your constructive feedback most effective:

Most coaching and counseling methods call for techniques to give and receive information. One of the most effective techniques is called "constructive feedback."

Disciplining an employee who has engaged in improper conduct should be different from dealing with an employee who is not performing work duties well. In fact, most business people prefer to refer to the latter as coaching, rather than discipline.

Once you've mastered the mindset of the coach, you're ready to try the exercise of coaching an employee with a performance problem. A coaching session to improve poor performance might contain the following steps: