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Hey What Happened to Mary? What to Tell Employees When a Co-Worker is Fired
It is a strange feeling in an office when an employee's desk is cleaned out. For co-workers who lose a long time friend, it can feel like a sudden death or divorce. Often times employees may know "something is up", because the terminated employee would share performance problems, but for others, it comes as a complete shock and can lead to fear and anxiety about their own jobs.
So, how do you maintain the privacy of the terminated employee but also reassure the remaining employees that their jobs are secure so they continue to produce at a high level? Let's start answering this question by taking a look at why employers may decide to keep terminations a secret: - Fear of a lawsuit. In today's litigious society, employers are fearful of being accused of defamation of character or wrongful termination. Defamation lawsuits occur when the employer says or writes something negative about the employee that cannot be proven, i.e., they stole equipment when it was never proven. There are many reasons for a wrongful termination lawsuit to be brought forward by an employee. Some of which include terminating an employee because of a worker's comp injury or because of their protected class (see 1964 Civil Rights Act).
- Keeping personnel information private. The philosophy here is that the organization wants to protect the privacy rights of the employee. There is a fear of being asked too many questions by employees regarding the termination and the employer would rather say nothing than too much.
While these fears can be legitimate, that should not keep the employer from letting employees know that their co-worker is no longer with the organization. I believe this information should be shared in a short, factual way. if the terminated employee is part of a large company, a short email to the following should be sent: "Tom Jones is no longer an employee of our company effective 1/30/2012. If you have questions about projects you were working on with Tom, please direct those to Mark Johnson." If you are part of a smaller company that has the ability to let everyone know at the same time through a staff meeting or stand up meeting, I suggest using these types of meetings to announce the change with the same format as the email... "Effective today Mary is no longer employed with us. Sue will be picking up her workload so you may direct all work questions to Sue." (Or we will be looking for Mary's replacement immediately.) You may be able to add the reason, i.e., elimination of position or that there will not be any additional layoffs to alleviate fears from the remaining employees. Again, I believe a shorter discussion is the best for everyone. Sharing information about an employee's termination can be a delicate balance of keeping the terminated employee's dignity intact and letting co-workers know what happened so they can get on with their work. | 
