Reply to advice about letting a new employee go (during review period)

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[quote=Anonymous]HR bitch here: Shall we assume you have no real HR department or person, and that you are the de facto HR? I will assume that until you say otherwise. First, check with your legal department/person that you are free and clear to fire her. 
Second, you either fire her right before lunch (so she can head out and it will just look to others that she's going to lunch) or at the end of the day, like at 4pm (so it looks like she's going home - this is the humane way to do it). Best not to do it on a Monday morning. Have a witness with you. I have fired close to one hundred people, and it's never been by myself. If it will be needed, have a box or sturdy bag on hand to give so she can pack her personal items. 
Third, sort out with your Legal what you will say about why you are firing her, and whether or not you will challenge her application for unemployment. When I have known my company won't, I have sometimes firmly encouraged the people being fired to apply for it right away. 
Fourth, close the door, close the windows. If you can pull her aside when everyone else is in a meeting, that would be good timing. 
Fifth, just do it. Sorry for the Nike reference. Without knowing details I would focus on the fact that you said she consistently blows deadlines. You can tell her that on paper she's great, but the skill you expected to get from her based on her resume are just not there, and unfortunately, as a non-profit you can't justify the salary to the board without the job performance. If you can, offer to be a good reference for her. It sounds like this just isn't a good fit, so maybe she'd do better somewhere else. If you can suss out where that would be, (what field), you can tell her that.

Firing people sucks. Medically it's been proven to be more stressful than being fired (which sounds backwards). Have tissues ready to offer. Have a clear plan to get her out of the office immediately after being fired.

As others have said, if you can do a warning first, that would be best. But six months is WAY too long in the non-profit world. If you could give her until the end of July, that would be great. If you were doing that, you'd give your warning tomorrow, Monday, with a concrete list of things she must improve to keep her job. [/quote]

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