What Is Termination? A Complete Guide

Termination of employment is common in the employment market. Especially when an organization is downsizing or restructuring, they have many employee layoffs. 

However, there are other reasons than just layoffs for employee termination. Some reasons include misconduct or a mutual agreement between the employer and the employee. 

If you are here to learn about the reasons for termination of employment, then keep reading. This article also includes the information notice for unemployment contains. 

What Is Termination Of Employment?

Termination of an employee is one of the most challenging situations an employee or employer faces. It is taken either by the employer or the employee. There are two types of terminations based on who causes it and how the termination of employment happens. 

It is called voluntary termination when the employee terminates their employment contract out of their own will. On the other hand, when the employer terminates the employee, it is called involuntary termination of employment. 

Both the employees and the employers have their own reasons for voluntary or involuntary employment. Employers usually terminate employees because of their insubordination, performance issues, general misconduct, dishonesty, misinformation, or inappropriate communication. 

However, voluntary termination has reasons like the employee’s retirement, finding a new opportunity to work, or the like. Some employees also leave their desk jobs for a particular way of life, travel, or follow a passion. For legal guidance and support in employment matters, consider consulting with professionals such as the best employment lawyer new york city, who specializes in employment law and can provide valuable insights. They can help in ensuring that your termination process is in line with the law, offering guidance and support throughout the legal aspects of employment terminations.

What Are Termination Notices? 

Employers usually hand employees termination notices during termination. This notice relays the information that the company is terminating you from the current position you are working in. 

The termination notice also follows necessary information related to the steps you need to take to follow through. It includes information about the compensation or the benefits that you might receive upon your termination. The same notice can be referred to as a contract termination notice, etc. Here is some basic information that this notice includes –

Basic Information 

First, the notice of termination should include the name of the employee who is being terminated and the name of the company. 

Reason For Termination

The termination notice must include why an employee is being terminated. Some common reasons for employee termination are – poor performance, layoffs, verbal abuse, and more.

Company Property Information 

The employer also mentions that the employee needs to return different company properties they had while working. These properties include laptops, ID cards, hard drives, valuable documents, ID cards, etc. 

Final Payslip

The employer also needs to provide the employee with detailed and final payslips. The payslip needs to include all payable amounts the company has paid the employee, including compensation for vacation days unused. 

Details Of Benefits 

Companies still allow employees to enjoy some of the benefits of their employment, such as insurance. The notice regarding the termination of employment should also include detailed information on such insurance. 

Common Examples Of Termination Of Employment

Both voluntary and involuntary termination of employment happens due to some common reasons. Here are some common situations under which employees are terminated. 

Lay Off

Lay off, the modern day of corporate and IT jobs, this term is pretty common. Sometimes the employer might lack some necessary resources to keep the employees. They might also go through significant organizational changes. Layoff can happen to an undefined number of employees at once. It happens due to a company downsizing, merger, acquisition, relocating, or outsourcing of work. 

Misconduct

One of the most common reasons for termination of employment is employee misconduct. An employer can send a notice of termination to their employees because of performance issues or behavioral issues. Here are some examples that come under misconduct-

• Arriving late to work
• Low-quality of work
• Misusing company resources or time 
• Insubordination
• Harassment, inappropriate behavior

Mutual Agreement

Both the employer and the employee can come to an agreement where they mutually decide to end the employee’s contract. Some reasons or examples behind the mutual agreement for termination of employment include –

• Retirement
• End of an employee’s contract that mentioned a specific time. 
• Forced resignation

Forced resignation is one of the cases where the employer requires the employee to hand in their resignation letter. This is opposed to terminating the employee involuntarily. 

Process For Termination Of Employment

There are several establishment protocols that need to be followed for the employment termination procedure. We have broken them down into two phases –

Before Termination

• Supervisors and managers track employees’ performance reports and observe their performance report.
• However, if there are deviances or shortcomings, the employer will give the employee a verbal warning. This will formally bring the issue to the employee’s notice.
• However, if the case of underperformance has been continuing for a while, the manager will give you a written warning, and then the final warning will come. At the final stage, the manager will bring the notice to the top officials in the management.
• If the issue persists and if the employee fails to address it, then the employer terminates the employee.

Warning letters usually contain different areas where you need to work to stay employed. 

The warming letter also includes gaols and the timeframe before which you need to fulfill them. 

The warning letter also lists down the consequences for not being able to meet the goals in time, hinting towards the possibility of termination.

After Termination

You will be able to ask your employer for a few things after the termination. Here are some examples –

• When company-related changes cause termination of employment, the employees can ask for severance pay. These changes usually involve downsizing or restructuring a company. 
• You can also ask for dismissal compensation based on what is mentioned in the contract. 
• Employees can also ask for a reference from their previous employer. This can prove beneficial for the employees to validate their work experience or skills. 

Bottom Line

Receiving a notice of termination of employment is scary for employees. However, this does not mean that their career has come to an end. In fact, if it had been done due to performance issues, the employee can take this opportunity to understand their position better. They can explore valid ways of improving their skills and look for other avenues of employment. 

Did this article outline the information you were looking for? Please let us know through the comment section below. 

Continue Reading:

• How to Navigate Target’s Return Policy: No Receipt, No Problem
• Is the Cat and Jack Return Policy Shopper-Friendly? Let’s Explore
• The Ultimate Guide to Salesforce Sales Cloud: Features and Benefits