Letting My Assistant Go...

[DCMom]

today. I've never done this before, so this is completely new territory. I know that there is no good time, but would you let her go this morning and pay her for today? I don't want to wait till the end of the day, because pick up time is so chaotic...but I don't know if I will make it to lunch time, my stomach is in knots, I hate this kind of stuff.

But with today being the last day for 5 kids and only one being replaced, I really don't have a choice.

Advice?

[momofboys]

today. I've never done this before, so this is completely new territory. I know that there is no good time, but would you let her go this morning and pay her for today? I don't want to wait till the end of the day, because pick up time is so chaotic...but I don't know if I will make it to lunch time, my stomach is in knots, I hate this kind of stuff.

But with today being the last day for 5 kids and only one being replaced, I really don't have a choice.

Advice?

What sort of contract do you have with her? Are you giving her any notice or just telling her it's her last day? Not sure what your agreement was with her but if I had an employee I'd try to give them a week or two notice so they can look for another job. I'm sure it's a hard thing to do to let someone go but it sounds like if you only have 5 it can all be handled by you. Hope it goes well. KUP!

[missnikki]

It sounds like you have known that this was the 5 kids' last days for a little while (I assume due to school resuming?). You should have said something once you knew.
Whether she is your legal employee or not (pays taxes, reports income, you report wages, etc) she may be entitled to notice of termination. Check the labor laws in your state- you wouldn't want a disgruntled employee to file a suit.

[DCMom]

No, I was not aware of all 5 leaving. I knew about 2 that are starting school and I have been planning for (which included keeping my assistant). The third one gave notice two weeks ago and I went back and forth about keeping her. I decided to keep her and hope to fill the spot relatively soon. The last two just gave notice on Monday; they are school age spots which are next to impossible to fill. All my school aged spots are filled by aging up.

Her employment contract is 'at will'; there is no notice required for 'lack of work'. There have been a few issues the last few months; including giving my name as a reference on job applications and taking time off for job interviews so I don't really feel any loyalty to her.

I am giving her one weeks' severance, because that is just how I am.

Thank you for your input, I appreciate it

[MarinaVanessa]

Hmm ... maybe I just don't know the details or maybe it's different from state to state but as far as I know when you fire someone or lay them off etc. you don't need to give them a minimum amount of notice just like you don't need to give a two weeks notice when you leave a job, it's just customary.

Seeing that she has put you on resume's as a reference (and I'm assuming that she probably didn't tell you beforehand that she was looking for a different place to work) I wouldn't feel any loyalty either. Especially if she took days off to go to these interviews. If it were me and today was the last day of having those other kids I would tell her today but at the end of the day. I think that I would have a hard time discussing this with someone when the kids were there. It would take my focus away from them and I would feel better knowing that the kids wouldn't be around if she became upset but if you feel comfortable waiting until nap-time or maybe when the kids were playing outside then I would do that and have todays pay ready as well as a formal letter of termination.

[Unregistered]

I would have told her the same day I knew. I would feel terrible if I used her till the end of the day just to make it easy on me. Taking care of five shouldn't be too hard to manage (you must have done this when she took off on her job-hunting days).

But at least you are giving her a week's pay - I've worked at a dcc where a woman was fired w/o notice and on payday. It still turns my stomach to think of how she was treated. It happened at our place before the business picked up - she was a kid in college w/car payments & bills and from what I was told, she was absolutely crushed when it happened. And funny thing was, business picked up a few months later and we were hiring again. But because the owner handled the girl's dismissal so badly, she couldn't even consider calling her back.

[missnikki]

DCMom,
Sorry to have assumed that you already knew in advance. I took it to mean that you did but I was wrong.

As far as this person using you as a reference, if you did not agree to it, you don't need to go along with it. If they call, you could say, "I don't know why she would use me as a reference, I would not rehire her."

You are very generous to give a week's severance. Make sure to give her a notice of termination letter too.

[QualiTcare]

DCMom,
Sorry to have assumed that you already knew in advance. I took it to mean that you did but I was wrong.

As far as this person using you as a reference, if you did not agree to it, you don't need to go along with it. If they call, you could say, "I don't know why she would use me as a reference, I would not rehire her."

You are very generous to give a week's severance. Make sure to give her a notice of termination letter too.

why would she say that to someone calling for a reference? because she's mad that she was looking for another job? that's really childish. an employer doesn't have to be notified if they're being used as a reference so there's nothing to agree to. every job application on the planet asks you to list your former employers - starting with the most recent usually.

[missnikki]

QualiTCare,

I was responding to the assertion that she was unhappy with her to begin with, which was mentioned in the 2nd post. Listing someone as a reference is by no means the same as listing previous employers. References do not need to be work related, just a character testemonial.
By law, when a potential employer or a Human Resources Dept. contacts a previous employer (in my state) it is unlawful to ask for, or to disclose any personal information other than date of hire, date of employment end, job title, description, pay, and hours. Oh, and one more thing- REHIRE STATUS.

[QualiTcare]

QualiTCare,

I was responding to the assertion that she was unhappy with her to begin with, which was mentioned in the 2nd post. Listing someone as a reference is by no means the same as listing previous employers. References do not need to be work related, just a character testemonial.
By law, when a potential employer or a Human Resources Dept. contacts a previous employer (in my state) it is unlawful to ask for, or to disclose any personal information other than date of hire, date of employment end, job title, description, pay, and hours. Oh, and one more thing- REHIRE STATUS.

she didn't say that she was unhappy with her. she said that she didn't feel any loyalty to her since she was looking for other jobs anyway. BIG difference.

i don't know why you're spouting law. i don't think anyone is confused about what a reference is.

my point was that there is no reason to say, "i don't know why she'd give me as a reference - i wouldn't rehire her." she's letting her go because there's not enough work.

[MarinaVanessa]

Without knowing any more details it's difficult to know exactly what is going on in this situation but I get the sense that she is also unhappy with her assistant and can use that as an excuse to let her go without even having to bring up the fact that she is losing kids. She does say ...

Her employment contract is 'at will'; there is no notice required for 'lack of work'. There have been a few issues the last few months; including giving my name as a reference on job applications and taking time off for job interviews so I don't really feel any loyalty to her.

The way it's worded sounds like to me that the fact that she has been looking for work elsewhere and has taken time off to go to interviews seems like it's just part of the reason. Seems to me that there are other issues as well.

[QualiTcare]

Without knowing any more details it's difficult to know exactly what is going on in this situation but I get the sense that she is also unhappy with her assistant and can use that as an excuse to let her go without even having to bring up the fact that she is losing kids. She does say ...



The way it's worded sounds like to me that the fact that she has been looking for work elsewhere and has taken time off to go to interviews seems like it's just part of the reason. Seems to me that there are other issues as well.

it seems like the job/reference ordeal is what bugged her most of all since that's what she pointed out. there's nothing wrong with looking for another job. at least she was honest. when i'm employed and someone asks if they can contact my current employer, i say NO! afterall, she was good enough to keep around until she couldn't afford it anymore so it's not like she was bad with the kids or just a horrible employee (i'd hope).

retaliation by the boss saying they wouldn't rehire an employee is too common and it's childish. if they weren't bad enough to fire over performance, then they should be good enough to give a good reference for. afterall, how is it going to make anyone's life better by giving a bad reference? there are people i hope i'd never have to see or work with again - but i'm not gonna try to screw them out of getting a job.

it doesn't matter - karma always does it's job anyway.

[Preschool/daycare teacher]

I am an assistant and if the owner decided to lay me off because of lack of work, or whatever reason (short of being forced to fire me on the spot) I would hope that the owner would at least give me a little notice. If I was firing someone, then yeah I'd do it that day, but due to lack of income I'd give a little notice.
One of my formal employers laid me off due to lack of income. He was more than happy with my performance and everything else, so I know it wasn't anything I'd done, but he didn't give me any notice. Just a phone call saying he didn't need me anymore in that position because there wasn't enough income to pay me. This was one hour before I was schedule to go into work that afternoon. It hurt because I loved my job and had put everything I had into it. So employers: If the employee doesn't deserve to be fired on the spot, then at least give them a little notice, whether the law requires it or not.

[missnikki]

i don't know why you're spouting law. i don't think anyone is confused about what a reference is.

Sounded like you were. Just trying to help.

[QualiTcare]

Sounded like you were. Just trying to help.

wow - that hurt. really, it did.

it's still crappy to give former employees a bad ref. just because they have enough sense to get out of a dead end, minimum wage job.