How to Deal with Late Employees | Is it Time to Let Them Go?

Have you ever wondered if you should fire somebody for being late?

Today, I'm going to show you how else you might be able to handle it or if it's really time to let them go.

If you've ever had to fire somebody or worse, you've been fired before, you know emotions can get hot. Now, I've had to fire people, so I know at that moment, the emotions are through the roof!

The Emotions of Firing

One of my good friends, Blair Singer says,

"When emotions are high, intelligence is low."

When you have two people with high emotions, you basically have two idiots talking to each other, and that does nobody any good.

Which brings us to this topic: What happens if a staff member shows up late and your emotion is high and they freak out?

Should you fire them right on the spot?

The Questions You Need to Ask Yourself

Here's a couple questions that I think will help you determine if it's actually time to do so. I have to first ask you,

“How clear are your rules? Do you have a written and posted set of rules in the salon that everybody agrees to and follows on a regular basis?”

Then, number two,

“Do you have consequences if those rules are broken?”

Like does it cost you $5? Are there consequences like you have to do extra duties? Are there other consequences, like you lose free days? What happens if you consistently miss being on time for your job? What actually happens?

If you don't have rules, let's start there. But if you do have rules, do you have consequences? Because it's hard to enforce rules that aren't there. Let alone making up appropriate consequences. That's the first thing that I would say is necessary before you spout off and fire somebody. Double check that and put those in place first.

How to Handle the Conversation

An important thing I want to say to you is,

“Don't fire on the first offense.”

There are genuine things that can cause people to be late, so you don't have to fire them right away. You might want to give them a verbal warning instead.

The second time they’re late, you might say,

"Look, this is continuing to be a pattern, if it happens again, we're going to end up parting ways.”

On the third offense, if they actually show up late and you've already had this conversation, then they've really fired themselves, especially if those rules are already in place.

I hope that was helpful in determining if you should let that person go. It is never a fun scenario on either side of the coin, but I hope I’ve given you some good framework and context for how you can have that discussion.

Until then, have an awesome week and watch another video.