What Leads to Employee Termination?

 Introduction to the Contents

This article exposes the affairs and matters related to the organizational phenomenon articulated  as Termination of Employment. The aspects and elements discussed down in this post are ranging from  introductions to the extents where  to explore the reasons & means behind each occurrence.  The picture that is drawn here supported by the theories and ideas extracted from various sources, is conveying the matters related to the subject in a clear & coherent manner.  

What is Termination of Employment?

This term can be defined as the separation of the employee from his/hers employer under certain conditions & circumstances. As to elaborate the types of  separation, they come in forms of voluntary termination ( employee's decision) and involuntary termination ( employer's decision) which is mostly due to layoffs or reduction in force (RIF) under economic or restructuring reasons (https://www.shrm.org/). In addition , there exists another component under involuntary termination identified as illegal dismissals.   

Voluntary Termination

Voluntary termination works in response to the sole consent of the employee who has decided to separate him/herself from his/hers employer under various circumstances. Obviously, the reasons behind this action are identified as that the supposed employee has found another job fitting to his/hers satisfactions, retire from the labor force, resign to start their own business, or when they want to take a break from working. However, the proper method for this process , always involves prior notices on the last working date for the employer from the supposed employee which comes in the form of the resignation letter etc. (Kagan,2021). At the event of failure to adhering to the above method, the employer has the right to regard that employee has abandoned his/hers job, ensuing consequences regards to the salary & benefits.

In addition, Voluntary Termination bears another side, where an employee sperate him/herself from the the employer under a constructive discharge or dismissal. This phenomenon is defined as a  lawsuit filed by an employee who has quit a job because the conditions under which they were working had become intolerable, primarily on purpose with the goal of forcing the employee to leave (Kagan, 2021).Moreover, these terminations are the signs of toxic working culture, where the employees are forced to leave under intolerable actions practiced in their working places.

Involuntary Termination

Under this particular process, there are two key types for this phase to act out: Layoff & Downsizing or Getting Fired. Under Layoff  & Downsizing, the employees are let go under certain scenarios as such:  employers decide to lower the operating costs, restructure their organizations or when conclude that they need not any employee - skill sets for the operations etc.(Kagan,2021). However, this termination is not attributed to any fault of the employees and they are entitled for the relevant compensations allocated by the company ,under the local labor laws. These sort of scenarios were common during the Covid 19 pandemic around the globe when the companies failed to sustain when cut off from their business operations. Moreover, these measures had been visible in Sri Lanka even before the pandemic, mostly targeting the tourism industry post Easter Attack 2019. 

The next involuntary termination is described as Getting Fired. This is entirely due to the actions and performances of the employees conducted within the working - place. The most common reasons behind this occurrence  are :the employees' poor and unsatisfactory performances, bad behavior, poor attitude that does not fit with the corporation's culture & an unethical conduct that violates the company's policies. However, under these situations  the employer grant the supposed employee a period during which he/she is supposed to make amends on his/hers identified flaws; and at the  failure of compliance ,the company has the right to fire that employee even without prior warning and with prejudice (Kagan,2021).

Illegal Dismissals

Nevertheless the employers  have the set of rights to call  termination upon the employees under the mentioned conditions, they do not have the liberty to fire employees for certain set of reasons. The reasons that stand in favor of employees include : reporting to work more than the hours specified in the contract, taking a leave of absence, reporting an incident or a person to the Human Resources Department, whistle blows* to industry regulators. The employer who discharges their employees for exercising their legal rights, is liable for wrongful termination in courts (Kagan, 2021).

The other means that bringing this occurrence to effect are employers' discriminatory reasons such as religion, race, age, gender, disability, sexual preference, or nationality. If an employer was testified for exercising a discharge upon an employee under  the above reasons may be required to compensate the wronged employee or reinstate them into the company.

* "A whistleblower is anyone who has and reports insider knowledge of illegal, illicit, and fraudulent activities occurring in an organization"(Kenton,2022).

Winding - up

The insights disclosed in this work are vital for both employers & employees, to adhere and follow within their professional parameters. Moreover, this article gives proper directives to employers & employees on their roles and performances under the illustrated subject, while educating them about their rights and the consequences they are liable to face post an action of misconduct. Therefore the intention of this work is being to expose a pivotal aspect in the organizational operations and to address the necessary  measures under the same  for both employers & employees without being bias. 

References

(https://www.shrm.org/) : What you need to know about termination of employment

Julia Kagan -2021 : What does termination of employment mean - https://www.investopedia.com/

Will Kenton - 2022 : What is a whistleblower - https://www.investopedia.com/