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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]yes but an employee like that brings down everyone else around her. Can you ask her what's at the root of it?

You can't fire for "sullen" in most cases, though, OP.  You can document poor performance (missed deadlines, crappy work) or conduct (coming in late, sleeping on the job).  Very hard to document "attitude." [/quote]

Why can't you fire for "sullen" or "bad attitude"? Assuming the employee is not part of a union or has some sort of contractual job protection, I was under the impression you could fire someone for any reason that's not specifically prohibited by law (i.e., illegal discrimination).

I'd definitely 1) document the problem; 2) talk to employee ("It seems like you're not happy here. . . "); 3) if it continues and has a negative impact on others, terminate.[/quote]

NP here.

Here's the thing, yes, legally, at-will employees can be fired for all sorts of reasons.

BUT as a manager, when you fire someone, that reflects on you, especially if the employee does good work and your reason is "bad attitude."  A good manager first will try to resolve issues like morale before firing people.

And if you end up having to fire another employee for actual work product issues, then you really start looking bad because, at some point, HR and your superiors are going to start wondering what's going on.

It is expensive and time-consuming to go through the process of posting for jobs, sorting through applications/resumes, interviewing, hiring new employees, training them, et cetera.

So there really are two parts to the question:  1) is it legal to fire an employee for X? and 2) is it a good idea as a manager to pursue firing an employee for X?

If the employee does good work, then I think it actually reflects badly on the manager if their first line course of action is termination for a negative attitude.  Part of why companies and organizations hire managers is so that they can manage!!!  And part of managing is morale and dealing with personalities.

OP, instead of looking to fire the employee in question, you should sit down and discuss morale.  Find out if there is a root cause.  Is the employee angry about something work-related?  Can you identify the problem and work to resolve it?

If there isn't a specific problem, find a one-day training that is targeted at managing emotions in the workplace or interpersonal interactions in the workplace and tell the employee they have to do the training as part of their training plan.

If you take these steps and then find the employee is still disruptive, then if you do eventually have to fire the employee, you can show to your superiors and to HR that you exhausted all options.

It isn't as easy as you think to find an employee who does good work.  If you can resolve the attitude issues, that is really the ideal.  At the end of the day, that is a big part of what a manager's job is.

I can't say this enough, a manager whose first course of action is to fire an employee who does good work but seems unhappy is not a good manager.  [/quote]

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