Blog #9 - Progressive Discipline

Last Monday, a good friend of mine was terminated from her job.  We all saw it coming . . . she was going through some personal problems and it was definitely affecting her work.  She was late to work almost every day because she had to get her 3 children ready and over to her mom's house, which was no easy task.  Not to mention the illnesses, the head-lice incident, and the parent-teacher meetings.  She started taking longer lunches and leaving work early.  She began missing work deadlines and meetings.  About 2 weeks ago, her boss and a HR representative had a meeting with my friend to discuss her work issues.  They presented her with a 5 page document outlining her poor performance issues including 3-4 examples of each offense.  It also included a plan of what she needed to improve, what needed to be corrected, and how she would be evaluated.  They gave her a deadline to meet these goals, which was 30 days.  Within the first 2 weeks, she was late to work 1 day due to a child illness and (her boss said) she missed a deadline.  They let her go, providing her with 2 month severance package and continued benefits, and paid-out her unused vacation time.

Did her employer follow all the necessary steps?  5 Step of Progressive Discipline outlines the correct process.  1. Oral Reprimand.  I know my friend did make her boss aware of her personal problems.  This was an informal conversation and, to her knowledge, nothing was documented.  2. Written warning.  This was provided, as mentioned above.  3. Final written warning.  Since she was terminated before the 30 day deadline was reached, there wasn't time for a final written warning.  4. Termination Review.  We can only assume the was completed by her boss.  5. Termination.

What could have been done differently in this process?  Was her boss justified to terminate her before the 30 day probationary period?  Do you think her boss was more than generous with the severance package provided?  Let me know your thoughts.