10 Reasonable Reasons to Terminate an Employee

Whatever you call it - terminating, firing, giving someone the boot - the reasons for being terminated from employment are not as easy as the movies make it out to be. And when the actual reasons to terminate an employee may be dependent on your own company practices and the state or country laws for where the company is located, a simple “You’re fired!” is not going to cut it.

What’s more, if your employees don’t fall under the ‘at-will employment termination’ bracket, you (the employer) are going to have to prove that an employee is being fired “for cause”. What this form of just cause employment means is that you will need to provide valid reasons for firing an employee.

What are the consequences if you don’t provide reasonable grounds for employee termination? Not only can withholding reasonable grounds for employee termination be considered illegal in the US, the employee in question could also file for unfair termination with the EEOC, resulting in potential lawsuits, fines, and negative attention.

Not sure about what reasons to terminate an employee you can use? For employers, we’ve listed the top 10 reasons employees get fired are, and why these count as legal reasons to fire an employee. 

For employees that happen to be reading this for some extra insight, keep in mind that these are all reasonable reasons to terminate a contract of employment, so take care and mind your behavior.

It’s likely that, throughout your working life, you’ve come across some form of discrimination. This is usually among the most common reasons for termination of employment. 

Whether it was directed at you or not, discrimination against an individual can create an uncomfortable working environment, and failure to address and investigate such behavior additionally has the potential for legal repercussions. Additionally, discrimination against individuals can be illegal, and is among one of this list’s legal reasons to terminate an employee. 

Most discriminatory behavior in the workplace is generally related to:

• Age
• Disability
• Gender identity and sexual orientation
• Nationality
• Race
• Religion
• Sex

Discriminatory behavior can be realized through many different forms, including harassment, sexual harassment, and misconduct. Retaliation against other employees is also another form of discrimination, sometimes derived from others resisting sexual harassment.

Misconduct is essentially an umbrella term for different examples of repeatedly poor behavior. There are a range of reasons that can lead to termination of employment due to misconduct, such as: dishonesty, behavior, and theft.

• Dishonesty: Among the reasons to fire someone, dishonesty is fairly important. Not only is falsifying documents at work or lying about one’s job qualifications and experiences both considered reasonable grounds for employee termination, they can also negatively impact both your team’s targets and the company.

• Behavior: Repeatedly poor behavior is one of the top 10 reasons employees get fired. Actions that may result in termination of employment due to misconduct include:
  • Regularly using company time or property for personal use.
  • Misuse and/or destruction of company property.

• Theft: Petty theft of company property, like office supplies, is grounds for employee termination. While small, any form of theft is considered illegal - though this usually only becomes one of the reasons to fire an employee if the theft happens frequently. 

Though encompassing many different behaviors, misconduct is not something to be taken lightly. Like many other just causes for termination of employment, it can create an uncomfortable and even unsafe environment for both you and your employees, so should be dealt with accordingly.

Firing an employee for insubordination usually stems from an individual refusing to follow instructions, while behaving in a disagreeable or even obstructionist manner. 

Often causing discomfort for other team members, insubordination can lead to an unsafe working environment - especially if the individual in question fails to follow health and safety protocols appropriately or completely disregards them.

Insubordination may also result in issues with coworkers, destruction of company property through misuse. If this persists and/or increases, this behavior is seen as one of the legal reasons to terminate an employee.

Where misconduct is a reflection of repeated poor behavior, serious misconduct can be a one-off of incredibly poor behavior. Though it may only happen once, instances of serious misconduct are among the reasons for immediate termination of employment.

These instances include, but are not limited to:

• Violence: Violence in the workplace, be it physical violence or verbal threats is considered among the reasons for immediate termination of employment. 

Whether it be intentionally destroying company property or threatening other employees, workplace violence creates an unsafe and hostile working environment. As a safe workplace is a legal right for employees, violence constitutes one of the immediate reasons for termination of contract of employment.

• Use of drugs or alcohol: Employees that are found to be using or are under the influence of illegal substances while at work can be issued immediate grounds for employee termination.

Also known as incompetence, terminating an employee for poor performance is usually done when an employee fails to perform their job adequately, even after warnings about their performance. 

This also includes failure to meet performance expectations, a continued or increased lack of productivity even after assistance, a frequent need to re-do tasks, and consistent customer complaints about the individual.

Upon hiring, it is common practice to get new employees to sign an employment agreement. Though the details of contents across professions will vary, every agreement should include information about your company policies and expectations of the employee. 

If an employee were to violate these policies by releasing confidential information about clients, company secrets (including project details and strategies, and financial information), this would be considered a breach of employment agreement and is grounds for firing an employee immediately.

Poor attendance, be it repeated lateness or frequent absences from work, can have detrimental effects on team projects and overall team performance. If performed without providing a valid reason, a lack of attendance is indicative of an uncommitted worker, and such behavior is adequate grounds for dismissal of employees. 

That said, be careful when using attendance as one of the reasons for dismissal of an employee. Oftentimes, frequent absences can be a result of an individual’s deterioration in mental health, physical health, and/or ill health and disability, so you should explore what rights workers have and consult your HR department before taking this issue further.

Termination of employment due to ill health, termination of employment due to mental illness can be considered as discrimination and may result in lawsuits. It is therefore in yours and the company’s interests to try to accommodate your employees before considering termination of employment on medical grounds.

Instead of being considered as one of the reasons to fire an employee from a just cause employment, layoffs are seen as a form of involuntary termination of employment. This is because they are usually the result of company downsizing and budget cuts, as opposed to an individual’s behavior.

For US based employers, layoffs are not considered as reasons for immediate termination of employment because workers may need to be informed of a layoff decision as early as 60 days in advance, according to the WARN act.

Harassment, including sexual harassment, is any unwelcome behavior directed towards an individual. This includes unwanted sexual remarks and/or physical touch or advancements.

While isolated incidents like singular offhand comments and teasing do not constitute legal reasons for termination of employment, repeated harassment that creates a hostile work environment may be considered illegal.

As an employer, it is your job to ensure that the workplace is safe for every team member. Failure to address cases of harassment, sexual harassment, or any other forms of discrimination in the workplace, and failure to investigate accusations, can be punishable by law.

Generally, once an employee’s employment term is up, the employer can issue involuntary termination of employment (unless said employee chooses to leave of their own accord which would be voluntary termination). 

This situation is obviously dependent on the type of contract the employee has with the company. For at will employment terminations, no reasons for dismissal of an employee are required. 

However, for just cause employment terminations, the employer is still expected to choose from any of the top 10 reasons employees get fired that we’ve listed above as lawful reasons for termination of employment.

Conclusion

Though each of these reasons to terminate an employee have differing levels of severity, the general rule of thumb should be that if an individual is causing other team members to feel unsafe, that person has to go. 

If you require more assistance in finding valid reasons for firing an employee, legal reasons to fire someone, or are confused about what constitutes just grounds for dismissal of employees, please consult your company HR department and state/country laws. 

Additionally, here is a helpful site to deal effectively with discrimination in the workplace.

--- Originally written by Eva O’Mara ---