In yesterday's How to Fire Without Getting Fired webinar, we asked our 1,700 or so participants the following question:

What is your single biggest fear when it comes to employee terminations?

Their answer: Basically, everything.

Specific fears mentioned included "getting sued" (20%), "lack of good documentation" (16%), "potential retaliation/violence" (7%), "saying something wrong" (7%), "not having all the facts" (5%) and "feeling guilty" (2%).

But the #1 most popular answer was "all of the above" (40%). "None of the above" was selected by a grand total of 0%.

Just for a little context, this was an audience experienced at handling terminations. When we asked how many terminations they had handled, the #1 answer was "more than I can possibly count" (31%). More than 50% of our audience reported handling at least 10 terminations. Only 7% said they had never fired anyone.

To help you overcome your termination fears, we prepared a suite of handy tools to guide every aspect of the termination process. They can be accessed here or by clicking on "Termination Tools" to the left under "Tools & Tips."

Article by Mark Toth, Chief Legal Officer of Manpower's North American operations, and courtesy of Manpower Employment Blawg. Mark also serve as Chief Compliance Officer and Vice President of Franchise Relations and serve on our Global Leadership Team, North American Lead Team, Executive Diversity Steering Committee and Sarbanes-Oxley Steering Committee.