Working Wounded: How to Fire an Employee

— -- Q U E S T I O N: I've got to fire one of those employees who fights everything. He even challenged a verbal warning I gave him a few years ago. How can I fire this guy without ending up in court?

— Counter Puncher

A N S W E R: Given the heightened security concerns in Washington, D.C., the headline was embarrassing — an intruder had breached the Supreme Court building.

Security personnel studied the surveillance videos and discovered that a fox had made it into the inner sanctum. Not a crafty burglar — no this was a real fox.

Because this is highest court of the land, officials didn't call an exterminator, they called a Virginia hunt group who gave the building a through going over with two foxhounds and a terrier. But the fox eluded their grasp.

What does this have to do with firing someone? Plenty. Because with all the litigation surrounding firing employees, many managers trying to fire someone feel in a legal maze just like that fox trying to make it through the Supreme Court.

But it can be done. For more, check out Paul Falcone's book, Firing and Hiring Question and Answer Book (Amacom, 2002).