Sugarcoated terminations

This might sound obvious, but when you’re firing an employee, you need to tell the truth.

Actually, that’s only half right. Well, closer to two thirds.

Anyone who’s ever watched Law and Order or been in a courtroom knows by heart the oath that witnesses take before testifying:

Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

I do.

Makes sense. It really breaks down this way:

1. You’ll tell the truth
2. You won’t leave anything out, and
3. You won’t add any lies.

For a witness in a court proceeding where the goal is to get justice, this three-part standard for testimony is the best way to do it.

But the workplace is not a court of law. (Yeah, I heard you say “duh.”) The goal isn’t necessarily justice. Instead, the goal is to run a workplace the right way and to avoid unnecessary and costly litigation.

Firing an employee is a high-risk situation. When you do it, you should follow only the first and third prongs of the testimonial oath:

• You’ll tell the truth
• You won’t add any lies.

What you say could come back to haunt you and the company in a lawsuit, so make sure that everything you say is the truth. Otherwise, if it can be shown that you lied at this point, it’s not hard for a judge or jury to think that you or the company lied at other points. Cases are won and lost on credibility, more than they are on laws and lawyering.

But forget about the “whole truth” part (the “you won’t leave anything out” part). You have no obligation to tell the fired employee absolutely everything, and you almost certainly shouldn’t. For example, you might fire somebody because their performance is bad and because, frankly, you just don’t like them. In the termination meeting, you should leave out the “frankly, I just don’t like you” part.

Managers and HR professionals understandably want to take the edge off these high-stress meetings. There is a desire to sugarcoat the termination a bit, to relieve the tension and perhaps allow the employee to save some face on the way out. That’s fine.

But resist the temptation to say anything that’s not true. It’s not worth it. Instead, sugarcoat the termination by leaving out the part of the truth that might be incendiary and hurtful. A terminated employee is entitled to know why he or she is being fired, but not every single reason.

Keep the whole truth to yourself.